Mt. Airy native helps launch U.K. anti-war group

Spurred by the death of his brother, Dante Zappala helped mobilize Britain's military families last week to speak with one voice against the Iraq war

by MICHAEL J. MISHAK

Dante Zappala's six-month journey for the truth brought him to Prime Minister Tony Blair's door in London last week. Standing with British families whose sons were killed in the Iraq war, Zappala, a Mt. Airy native, felt the sense of accountability he says has eluded him since his brother, Sgt. Sherwood Baker, died on April 26 when a suspected chemical warehouse exploded in Baghdad.

Staring at his reflection in the Downing Street door, Zappala, 29, joined the others as they delivered a wreath of poppies in remembrance of fallen soldiers, literally placing blame at Blair's door on the eve of Armistice Day.

The demonstration was a not-so-subtle announcement of a movement already more than 1,800-strong in the United States: military families openly critical of their government's participation in the Iraq war.

Zappala, who lives and teaches in Los Angeles, recounted his recent travels during an informal gathering last Saturday to an overflow crowd of family and friends at his mother's Mt. Airy home.

He visited the United Kingdom on behalf of Military Families Speak Out, an anti-war group whose members have children or relatives in the military. Initially set to speak about the direction of the anti-war movement post-election, Zappala found himself in the midst of British military families during a particularly volatile time.

Anti-war sentiment had surged in recent weeks in response to the transfer of British troops from southern Iraq to the high-risk area around Baghdad. The shift was meant to free U.S. forces for the assault on the militant stronghold of Fallujah. Within days of his arrival, the deaths of three British soldiers from the Black Watch Regiment resulted in public outcry.

The British were not encouraged by the news that President George W. Bush had won reelection, Zappala said. The country's newspapers, some of which were passed around during Zappala's talk last week, decried the election with blaring headlines.

He said he found more accountability in the British press. In less than a minute, he said, BBC news showed two images American networks rarely, if ever, touch: the funeral of an Iraqi and an exploding Humvee.

"Our sense of compassion has been compromised by self-censorship," Zappala said. "This should be in the face of everybody. The human cost of war seems to get lost in our news."

After delivering a speech about non-violence at a Friends meeting house, he was shocked to hear another speaker's pleas for the audience to support the Iraqi insurgency.

At another event, students threw crushed paper at him. "It's shameless to incite violence if you're not going to be a part of it," he told them.

Zappala then traveled to Glasgow, Scotland where he spent time with military families who had lost sons in Iraq. He urged the small group, who up until then had been protesting the war individually, to form an organization. Modeled on the American Military Families Speak Out, Military Families Against the War was born. A Web site (www.mfaw.org.uk) and a rally followed. The group was officially launched on Nov. 10, the eve of Armistice Day. The public campaign also came one day before the 30th anniversary of Sherwood Baker's Veterans Day adoption by the Zappala family.

Initially met with resistance by police, the wreath ceremony was covered in the British press and was eventually permitted, Zappala said. While the group's members are not anti-military (some had proudly served themselves), they take issue with the war itself, calling their government's justification "deceitful," he said. "When my son signed up for service he expected his service to be used in an appropriate way," one member told reporters, Zappala recalled.

Following their Downing Street visit, the group met with about 15 members of Parliament, urging them to apply more pressure on Blair for the withdrawal of British troops. Zappala was in awe of the personal audience. "Can you imagine 15 Congressman sitting down with a group like that," he asked. "It wouldn't happen."

An organized British anti-war group is notable, Zappala said, since open dissent is discouraged throughout the country with rarely enforced, yet still active treason laws. One outspoken critic was even offered a government-subsidized vacation because she was appearing in the press too often, he said.

With fewer troops and more public outcry, Britain could trigger change, he said.

"Getting the United Kingdom out of Iraq is a huge step," Zappala said. "We're not going to talk sense to George Bush. We can protest in the streets and hope it does something, but these guys are leading us down a really dark road."

Zappala's momentum had been gathering for more than six months since the death of his brother. Initially, he sought meaning through his writing. His letter to the president, entitled, "Mr. Bush, you'd have liked my brother," was published in newspapers around the country. A more personal account was posted on salon.com last month. He also wrote to filmmaker Michael Moore, and two of his letters were published in Moore's Will They Ever Trust Us Again, a collection of correspondence with soldiers and their family members released last month. Zappala even spoke on the author's "Slacker Uprising Tour" in Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

Still, there is anger. But Zappala said he has learned to manage the emotion.

"It begins and ends with my brother," Zappala said. "There was so much promise in him ... It's important we carry that promise."