Fernando Suarez speaks quietly and calmly, almost dispassionately. "The government said he died from a bullet from an Iraqi," he tells Mexican tourists on the beach at Santa Monica, southern California. "It was a lie. He died from an American explosive."
Jesus Suarez, Suarez's son, was one of the first US servicemen to die in the US-led invasion of Iraq. Behind Suarez stands a field of small wooden crosses planted in the sand.
Each cross represents an Amer-ican from the forces who has died in Iraq since the war began just over a year ago. The most recent one carries the words: "Name not released yet."
PHOTO: AFP
The meeting at the beach occurs weekly and is one of several gatherings started in California in recent months as the toll of US dead from Iraq has grown.
This weekend, as the US army death toll in Iraq passes 800, Americans had a public holiday for Memorial Day, marking World War II. But this year the day has turned into a different kind of remembrance: as a memorial to the 20th-century war veterans was unveiled in Washington, many Americans turned their thoughts to the current conflict.
Known as "Arlington West," a nod to the Arlington national cemetery in Washington, the field of crosses -- an unofficial memorial to the US' war dead -- started up on the beach in Santa Barbara, north of Los Angeles, in November last year. Every Sunday the Los Angeles chapter of Veterans for Peace attend. Ed Ellis keeps count of the dead week by week.
"I left Vietnam more than 30 years ago," he said. "These kids, most of them are in their 20s, went to war but didn't come back ... This is a very inviting memorial, it's not one that stridently pushes an agenda. People can recognize the sacrifices these people have made."
The public is invited to write the name of one of the dead soldiers on a tag. They then tie the tag, along with a flower, to one of the crosses arranged in rows alongside the pier. At each corner of the grid of crosses a US flag flies at half mast. The Last Post, or Taps as it is known in the US, plays in the background.
The aim is to prompt awareness in the US of the human cost of the war in Iraq, a cost that all too often goes unreported in the US.
"You feel a tremendous sadness to see all these young men," said Teresa Lanca, from Palm Springs.
Pierre Vignol, from France, said: "It's nice to show that we didn't forget these people. It has to show that war is not a game, that real people died."
A small boy, sucking on an ice lolly, was not so convinced.
"Are there bodies in here?" he asked his father.
"I think it's beautiful but chilling," said Teresa Moore, from Los Angeles. "This needs to be exposed even more, it gets censored by the media."
Her friend, Elaine Boyd, a teacher, said: "There are 100 more since the last time I saw it. One of my students is there. He was 20 when he was killed. He was just a good, ordinary kid. He always wanted to be a Marine. It's kind of hard to deal with, because so many of my students are signing up. I teach in what might be called a marginalized area and this is a green-card army. They like the uniform, they want to be patriotic, and they do believe they're fighting terrorism."
Jesus Suarez left Mexico in 1997 for California hoping to fulfil his wish to become a Marine. Like Boyd, Suarez is highly critical of the US army's recruitment tactics in high schools, saying students are promised substantial financial reward and green card status should they enlist. To many in the deprived urban areas, where immigrant populations are high, the temptation is hard to resist.
"The ones we need to talk to are the ones who are recruiting for the war, who have children in the war," said Sally Marr, another organizer of the weekly event.
"It's very hard to visualize several hundred dead. But when they see this they see a very different thing," she said.
"We need to talk to these people and show them that this is the cost of the war," she said.
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