The group painted the number on the rock on Farm Lane on Monday, along with its ultimate goal — to “bring ‘em home.”

Karchon and other members of the group spent Monday afternoon protesting at the rock in support of ending the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and deterring any further conflict in Libya, he said.

“A lot of people agree at MSU’s campus that we need to end the war,” Karchon said. “It’s not sustainable economically or (in terms of) life.”

Representatives from the Libertarians read a list of the names of the fallen U.S. soldiers into a megaphone.

The Washington Post’s Faces of the Fallen project cites the number of casualties in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom as higher than 5,800.

The Libertarians also gave away American flags, had a petition available for students to sign in support of changing current U.S. foreign policies and accepted donations for the National Military Family Association, said Bobby Fox, an accounting sophomore and vice president of the group.

Part of the group’s intentions simply was to remind students that the wars still are happening, he said.

“Troops are still dying and we’re spending a ton of money,” Fox said. “If we get a third war (in Libya) — it’s going to be bad.”

The U.S., France and United Kingdom began air strikes against Libya on Saturday near what is considered the opposition stronghold of Benghazi and the capital city of Tripoli. The strikes began after the U.N. Security Council enacted a no-fly zone.

Biomedical laboratory operations sophomore Ben Andress signed the group’s petition Monday because he said many people are not giving the wars overseas the attention they deserve.

“People are ignoring the fact that Americans are still dying over there,” he said.

Karchon said he originally painted the rock Sunday afternoon, but overnight thunderstorms washed away the message. He went back at 2:30 a.m. Monday to repaint it, he said.