Dozens protest Iraq, Afghanistan wars at Archer Park

McALLEN - Of the 17 months Martha Julieta Campos has been married, she has only lived under the same roof as her husband for about four months.

He’s spent more than a year deployed in Iraq and has been sent back for a second tour.

“We can’t even begin a family because of the war,” said Campos, a Brownsville resident.

Campos was one of about 50 people who attended an anti-war protest Sunday at Archer Park that followed with a march down Business 83.

Members of various community organizations and other citizens gathered at the park’s gazebo to urge the United States to pull its troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq. People held posters with sayings including “Bring troops back” and “Health care not warfare” as other participants spoke about the need to bring troops home from what they called two failed wars. This month marks the eighth anniversary of the United States sending troops to Afghanistan.

More than 5,200 service members and civilians serving in Iraq and Afghanistan died since the beginning of those operations, according to U.S. Department of Defense figures as of Oct. 16. Of those, 33 were from the Rio Grande Valley, and though it seems a small number, it actually translates to the Valley having almost twice as many service men and women die than other communities in the country, said Samuel Freeman of People for Peace and Justice and a political science professor at the University of Texas-Pan American.

Campos, who joined Students for Peace, said she knows she is not alone and that there are many people who have spouses and other loved ones deployed. She became involved in the anti-war movement after seeing her husband, who is an infantryman in the U.S. Army, go through two deployments and have promises made to him broken.

“(The Army) said they would give him a promotion. (When he returned to Iraq) they didn’t give him the promotion they promised him,” she said.

David Cortez, a senior at the University of Texas-Pan American and president of Students for Peace, said he has a brother-in-law serving in Afghanistan and has had other relatives serve in the military during Vietnam and has grown more discontent with how the country spends money on war.

“We’re still pouring money into killing people,” said Cortez.

Jennifer L. Berghom covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4462.