MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – If he’d known the United States was going to invade Iraq, U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Liam Madden says he probably wouldn’t have enlisted a month before. Still, he has no regrets.

The 22-year-old Bellows Falls man, who spent seven months in Iraq, is leading a group of service members who are protesting the nation’s occupation of Iraq and calling on Congress to withdraw all American troops.

“I’m concerned about the reasons we went to war, about the profiteering,” he said Thursday from Quantico, Va. “I’m concerned about the human life that’s being lost, every aspect of the war.”

At least 500 service members from different branches of the military have joined the appeal, under the whistle-blower protection act, Madden said. Soldiers can add their name to the movement on the Web site http://www.appealforredress.org.

At 18, just out of high school, Madden decided the Marines was a better option than college, allowing him time to grow up and challenge himself, he said. But he had doubts before the 2003 start of the war “when the current administration started inundating us with fear.”

About two years later, he was sent to Iraq for seven months.

“Iraq, I never approved of it, but I put my opinions kind of on hold,” he said. “My feelings started to intensify and coalesce when I came back to the U.S. and started informing myself more.”

He felt comfortable expressing his opposition to the war to his family and friends but was nervous about going public about it on a broader scale, he said.

Now, he’s gone public in a big way. He appeared on CNN on Wednesday, and was profiled in his hometown newspaper Thursday. He said he’s received mostly supportive e-mails from fellow service members.

“Very few people are outright mad at me for expressing my opinions of war,” he said.

That includes his parents, who both say they are proud of him. His mother initially supported the war but now says her views are changing.

“It seems like it’s gone on longer than I thought and probably not executed as well as it could it have been,” said Oona Madden, 53.

Will Madden, who lives in Keene, N.H., said he had always opposed the war.

“I think he’s very courageous,” he said of his son. “I’m very proud of him. I wish my heart was more fluent in English to express how I feel.”

AP-ES-10-26-06 1831EDT