No place for soldiers at a war memorial...

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http://www.suntimes.com/output/pickett/cst-nws-pickett17.html

Acknowledging war deaths now a political statement

The display of 1,022 pairs of combat boots -- one for each U.S. soldier killed in Iraq -- is a powerful piece of public art. snip

Live ones are more complicated

There were three young men in Army uniforms who happened to stop by Federal Plaza on Thursday. Getting out of their blue government car, they walked onto the plaza and stared for a while at the empty boots, walking carefully between the neatly laid out rows of worn, black boots.

As Michael McConnell, the regional director of the American Friends Service Committee, the pacifist Quaker group that sponsored the memorial, called the conflict in Iraq "the deadliest war since Vietnam," the three soldiers just stared off into the middle distance.

None of the anti-war activists spoke to them. None of the spectators did, either.

"Be careful what you say to the media," one soldier cautioned another, as I approached, notebook in hand.

They smiled and shook their heads as they walked back to their car, leaving me to think about how it could be that there is no place for soldiers at a war memorial.

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