A group of local citizens gather in front of the Valley City Post Office on Saturday to promote peace as the fifth anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq approaches. The group carried signs and engaged in conversation and prayed for peace. (Submitted photo) 

A group of local citizens gathered in front of the Valley City Post Office on Saturday to promote peace as the fifth anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq approaches. The group carried signs and engaged in conversation and prayed for peace.
    Sharon Clancy, rally organizer, said, ”This Iraq war is almost aseptic because career soldiers and contractors are bearing the day to day burden for the war. This rally is an opportunity to engage and focus on the horrible statistics.”
    Clancy noted that “there are 3,974 of our men and women dead, 29,395 wounded and who knows how many suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome. There are 90,000 Iraqi citizens dead as substantiated by documents and who knows how many that have not been recorded. We are spending $12 billion a week to carry out this war and it is expected that this year, 2008, the total costs will pass $1 trillion. Our war efforts are supposed to be giving the Iraq government the opportunity to put together a united government of Sunni, Shiite and Kurds. There has been no progress.
    “We need to gather to say ‘enough,’ ” Clancy said.

For full story, see the Monday edition of the Valley City Times-Record.