A Weekly Battle Over War in Iraq

"They're not doing any good," he said. "George Bush isn't driving down the street. Neither is Cheney. [The protesters] are just pissing off the soldiers."

The same night, John Bruhns, a former infantry soldier who fought in Iraq from 2003 to 2004, bristled at taunts leveled by war supporters.

"I'm very anti-Iraq war," he said. "I'm a proud American. I'm a patriot."

"The mob scene on the other side is trying to say we're anti-troops," Bruhns, 28, said last week. The war protesters "support the troops; they just don't support the war. That isn't impossible, but it's something the opposition refuses to recognize."

More often than not, Murphy said, soldiers at Walter Reed, their relatives and hospital personnel have said, "'Thanks for being here.' That's why we come back here. That's why we can take the risk of offending. They want the war to end, and they want the wounded to be taken care of."

Most of the standoffs are peaceful, although occasional shoves have been exchanged when supporters of the war have crossed the street and gotten in protesters' faces while taking photos of them, Murphy said.

Some of the pictures end up on FreeRepublic.com, complete with mocking captions and commentary and venomous remarks from bloggers on the site.

In September, a motorist stopped in front of the war supporters and threw an apple into the crowd before speeding off. No one was injured, but police were summoned.

Recently, about a dozen veterans on motorcycles started revving their engines in front of the war protesters, trying to chase them off. The activists stood their ground.

Taylor offers no apology for the war supporters' take-no-prisoners approach.

"We treat them with a contempt that they've earned," he said.

Despite the contentiousness, some demonstrators are obviously enjoying themselves. "FReepers continue to frustrate the Pinkos' evil scheme," a FreeRepublic fan wrote in an August blog post describing the group's 18th "fabulous fun" standoff against the war protesters. And the fan noted: "We ate pizza on site."

How long will the Friday night fights go on?

"As long as it takes," Murphy said.

"Until Code Pink stops protesting outside the hospital," Taylor said.