by OLGA KHAZAN
Observer staff

MANCHESTER, N.H. — With banners reading “One day in Iraq = 423,529 children with healthcare” and a bus covered in slogans urging the impeachment of President Bush, anti-war activists gathered in Concord today near events for Mike Huckabee and John McCain. Their hope is to spread their message to voters before Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary.

The small staffs of the American Friends Service Committee and the New Hampshire Peace Action joined with volunteers to “deliver a message of peace” to candidates vying for New Hampshire votes this week. Among their ranks were several former clergymen, Iraq war veterans, military servicemen, and an Iraqi peace activist.

Raed Jarrar, who moved to the United States from Baghdad two years ago, has appeared at speaking engagements across New Hampshire for the past four days. Jarrar is raising awareness and seeking an end to American intervention in Iraq. He was in Concord on Tuesday working with the activists after visiting Manchester, Salem, and Derry to attend various debates and rallies.

“My goal is to get Iraqi voices involved in the debate,” Jarrar said. “Ninety percent of the Iraqi population demand immediate withdrawal of American troops, but the only elected Iraqi body (the Iraqi parliament) has been ignored.”

Although they are not campaigning for any specific candidate, the activists hope that their message will encourage voters to choose candidates supporting immediate troop withdrawal in the primaries. American Friends Service Committee New Hampshire coordinator Arnie Alpert says the group hopes to ask the candidates tough questions on their plans for troop withdrawal. This goal has become more difficult as candidates’ events become larger and less personal closer to the primary.

“We are educating the candidates, as well as the public, so that people know which questions to ask the candidates when they get the chance,” Alpert said.

Alpert said his group has been traveling for about a year and plans to stay in New Hampshire through Tuesday. In order to increase their visibility, the group turned to Jim Goodnow of Terlingua, Texas and his Yellow Rose of Texas Peace Bus. Goodnow, a Vietnam War veteran and anti-war activist, agreed to let the organization tour New Hampshire with him on the bus.

Goodnow has protested every war and major political scandal since the Nixon administration. He has been on the road non-stop for 27 months, traveling through 31 states and logging over 50,000 miles.

“Innocent people are dying, we’re losing our own people, and we have to bring this to a halt,” Goodnow said. “If we stay (in Iraq), it will only perpetuate the chaos and the madness.”

While their efforts have been strongest for the four days between the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primaries, the actual impact the group is making is questionable, even according to the activists themselves. Jarrar feels that politicians aren’t concerned with the wishes of the Iraqi people and instead view the war from an entirely domestic perspective.

“It’s not easy to penetrate the mainstream media and the people with the megaphones,” he said.

Goodnow, however, is more optimistic, saying that the group has experienced a tremendous outpouring of support from voters and from Iraq veterans.

“If we don’t continue doing this today,” he said, “everything we have done before now – Nixon, Watergate, Vietnam - has been for naught.”