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The display, marking the fourth anniversary of the war, also included smaller circles of civilian shoes and sandals. One sandal represented a slain 1-year-old Iraqi — the name Mahdey Abed Al-Atheem was etched into the tag.
The boots make up the traveling exhibit “Eyes Wide Open,” which was created by the American Friends Service Committee, a branch of the pacifist Quaker church. It has appeared across the country and in other Minnesota cities.
For several hours Monday, onlookers meandered through the exhibit and read the names on the boots and shoes while speakers called out the names of Iraq war casualties, starting with Minnesota soldiers and followed by other American soldiers and Iraqi civilians.
“It’s really powerful,” said David Pederson, 16, of Minneapolis, who came to the exhibit with his father, Dan. “It’s easy to forget how many people have died. This puts real feet in those boots, and faces to the names.”
Local exhibit organizer Linda Winsor of St. Paul called it a peace exhibit — rather than anti-war — and said it was welcoming to people with all points of view. “We’re honoring the true cost of war,” Winsor said. “Whatever you thought about (the Iraq war), everybody comes together around the sacrifice.”
A few dozen people milled around the rotunda while speakers read the names, each one punctuated with the sound of a bell. The numbers increased as student groups visiting the Capitol stopped by.
As of Sunday, at least 3,217 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The number includes seven military civilians.
The number of people with strong Minnesota ties who have died in connection with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan reached 53 when Marine Sgt. Chad M. Allen, 25, of Maple Lake died Feb. 28 in Anbar province.
According to an AP-Ipsos poll released in February, more than six in 10 Americans now think the conflict was a mistake.
Recent reports suggest that security in Baghdad has recently improved. And on Sunday, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who opposed President Bush’s troop surge and is calling for more diplomacy, acknowledged after a tour of Fallujah that American forces are making progress in training Iraqi security forces.
For Rick Hanson, a Minnetonka man whose son, Eric, is serving his second deployment in Iraq, it’s all too little, too late. He called the war immoral and illegal from the start and said American troops should leave immediately.
Hanson spoke at an anti-war rally in Minneapolis on Sunday, then got up Monday and came to the Capitol exhibit with Eric’s older brother, Nolan.
Asked what he hoped the exhibit would accomplish, Rick Hanson said, “I think it helps people get a little closer to empathizing with the human cost ... if they can just see the boots our soldiers have worn.”
Gregg Aamot can be reached at gaamot@ap.org
