Port Townsend peace activist reports from Baghdad

Anna Bachmann says from Baghdad that she’s “radicalized” and prepared to go to jail to stop a war against Iraq.

For the past three weeks, the Port Townsend resident said she has met hundreds of kind but poor Iraqis who live in a police state, appreciate America but fear they may soon feel its wrath.

From that experience, Bachmann said she feels even more strongly that war is the wrong way to deal with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

“It’s radicalized me,” said Bachmann, 40, of her experience in a telephone interview from her Baghdad hotel.

“People need to go to jail for civil disobedience.

“I’m scared to say that, but I think I would (face jail). I can’t have come here and seen what I’ve seen and not do that.”

Bachmann, volunteer coordinator at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, is one of four Washington state residents who are part of Voices in the Wilderness’ 25-member Iraqi peace team.

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The rest of the story appears in Monday’s Peninsula Daily News. Click on SUBSCRIBE, above, to get the PDN delivered or mailed to your home or office.

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