Revolution #221, January 9, 2011
131 Arrested in DC Protest to Demand: Stop These Wars Now!
As Barack Obama delivered his December 16 report on the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan at the White House, Veterans for Peace (VFP) brought hundreds of veterans and others to demand: Stop These Wars Now! Daniel Ellsberg, who at the risk of life in prison leaked the Pentagon Papers that exposed government lies about the Vietnam War, author Chris Hedges, and 129 others were arrested for standing at the White House fence and refusing to leave. For many, this was their first arrest for civil resistance. And it was a break with protest as usual, as people put their bodies into an expression of enormous anger at the U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the drone bombings and secret war in Pakistan.
Leah Bolger, a VFP leader, said the protesters were “willing to disobey the police as an act of resistance to our government as a way of saying ‘No’ to the senseless slaughter of innocent people, ‘No’ to outrageous war profiteering, ‘No’ to our government’s flagrant disregard of international law, ‘No’ to the squandering of hundreds of billions of dollars. Although it is we who were treated like criminals—handcuffed, arrested and charged—we are not the ones ordering drone strikes or sending in troops. We are not the ones using illegal weapons and poisoning the earth. We are not the ones with blood on our hands. The real criminals continue unabated, shamelessly claiming that they are ‘making progress,’ and unabashedly announcing that they plan to continue their crimes for many years to come.”
VFP, World Can’t Wait, and ANSWER plan anti-war actions in Washington and nationwide on Saturday, March 19, 2011, the anniversary of the “shock and awe” in 2003 when the U.S. began the massive bombing of Iraq before the invasion.
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December 16, 2010: Veterans and others at the White House demand "Stop these wars now!" |
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Author Chris Hedges being arrested. |
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Photo: Ellen Davidson |
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Photo: Ellen Davidson |
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Debra Sweet, |
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Daniel Ellsberg, who at the risk of life in prison leaked the Pentagon Papers that exposed government lies about the Vietnam War. |
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