The Journal Gazette, 600 W. Main St., Fort Wayne IN

Eighty-four times they’ve stood on this sidewalk. Eighty-four times – once a month, every month, for seven years – they’ve stood here with signs and banners and pins and flags.

And still, soldiers and civilians are being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I can’t believe it’s the seventh anniversary, really,” said Tim Tiernon, standing with about 20 others at the Courthouse Green downtown Saturday for their monthly protest against the war. “The situation hasn’t changed.”

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, as of Friday, 4,389 U.S. troops have been killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom since the war began on March 19, 2003. An additional 936 have been killed in and around Afghanistan in Operation Enduring Freedom.

Tiernon, wearing “Veterans for Peace” and “Peace is Patriotic” pins, said that if the more than $700 billion spent on the war had been spent instead on things like education and health care, the country might be far better off. And while he was hopeful that President Obama would change things, he has been disappointed so far.

“He’s killing more people in Afghanistan than (President) Bush did,” he said.

The issues were a little simpler for Brooklyn Palm, 7.

“We should keep the whole Earth in peace,” she said, trying to keep her long bangs out of her bright eyes while drummers pounded out rhythms nearby and someone read the names of the dead over a small loudspeaker. “No fighting. No more bad stuff.”

Palm, a first-grader at Forest Park Elementary, stood underneath an American flag near her grandmother, Barb Sain.

“We were on our way skating and heard about a peace rally, so we thought we’d take time out to be patriotic and take a stand for peace,” Sain said. Sain’s son is in the Army Reserve, training soldiers on their way to Iraq.

“War is never good, never good,” she said. “It’s probably sometimes a necessary evil, but it’s never good.”

dstockman@jg.net