Washington (National Times) As news reports circulated that Iran\u2019s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, had been killed in US and Israeli airstrikes on Tehran, anti-war protesters gathered across the United States, including outside the White House and in New York\u2019s Times Square to voice opposition to US military involvement in the region.
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t sanctioned by Congress, so what Trump is doing is on his own terms, it\u2019s making him a fascist and it\u2019s making the country into a fascist state,\u201d said Sue Johnson, a protester.
Trump, she added, \u201cjust couldn\u2019t wait. He\u2019s such an impatient child. He\u2019s like, \u2018Well ICE didn\u2019t work, so let\u2019s go stir things up in the Middle East. He bombed Iran for no specific reason.\u201d
\u201cNo president can attack or kidnap or bomb another country without the permission of the Congress,\u201d she said, but conceded that \u201cit\u2019s irrelevant what Congress thinks because this president goes and does whatever he wants to do to any country.\u201d
That sense of fait accompli that accompanies recent Trump administration foreign policy actions, including the capture of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, the Venezuelan president, permeated the New York gathering of several hundred protesters.
Scores of protests were sponsored by a coalition of leftwing groups, including: the ANSWER Coalition, the National Iranian American Council, 50501, American Muslims for Palestine, the People\u2019s Forum, Palestinian Youth Movement, CodePink, Black Alliance for Peace and the Democratic Socialists of America.
The coalition listed other \u201cemergency protests\u201d on Saturday, including in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami and Minneapolis.
Others will be held on Sunday in smaller cities, including: Albany, New York; Ellensburg, Virginia; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Decorah, Iowa; Gainesville, Florida and Springfield, Missouri.
Organizers put out a statement calling \u201cTrump\u2019s unprovoked, illegal attack on Iran is an act of war that threatens to cause unthinkable death and destruction. But the people of this country reject another endless war and will take to the streets now and make our voices heard.\u201d
New York\u2019s DSA-aligned mayor, Zohran Mamdani, said earlier in the day that the US and Israel strikes on Iran \u201cmark a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression. Bombing cities. Killing civilians. Opening a new theater of war. Americans do not want this. They do not want another war in pursuit of regime change.\u201d
The American Civil Liberties Union joined scores of Democratic lawmakers to demand that Congress take immediate action to end Trump\u2019s unconstitutional use of military force against Iran. The veteran civil rights group noted it had been \u201csteadfast in insisting, from Vietnam through the war in Afghanistan, both wars in Iraq, the military action against Libya, and the ongoing use of force in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia, that the Constitution is clear that decisions on whether to use military force require Congress\u2019s specific, advance authorization\u201d.
That sentiment was echoed Willie Cotton, 48, of Brooklyn, New York, who told the Guardian that he didn\u2019t believe it was in the interests of the US for Iran to have a nuclear weapon \u201cbut I am opposed to US bombing\u201d.
\u201cI support the demonstrations,\u201d in Iran, he said, \u201cand support the thousands that have been killed by the regime there. But the US doesn\u2019t go in there to help them, nor to benefit the region, it\u2019s going in there for it\u2019s own interests and aims.\u201d
Cotton acknowledged that Trump told Iranians, as he announced the strikes early Saturday, that the attack on Iran\u2019s theocratic regime represented \u201cprobably be your only chance for generations\u201d to take power .
\u201cHe said that to Venezuela and then said, this is our oil two minutes later,\u201d Cotton pointed out skeptically. \u201cUS history is that they go into these conflicts for its own benefit, not for the benefit of the people there. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s deviating from that course of protecting US business interests, including his own.\u201d
\u201cBut that\u2019s no different than Biden or Obama or any of the like. I don\u2019t give back-handed support to Obama. He had the same course of sanctions that hurt the working people of Iran,\u201d Cotton said.
As a member of the Socialist Workers party, he added, he was firmly is support of Israel defending itself after Hamas\u2019 cross-border attack on the country on 7 October 2023. \u201cIt was Iran that organized the bombing campaigns against Israel and Israel has a right to defend itself.\u201d
\u201cBut the US isn\u2019t defending itself here \u2026 it\u2019s advancing its goals all around the world.\u201d
Protesters gathered as the FBI\u2019s counterterrorism and counterintelligence teams were placed on elevated alert nationwide. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said she is \u201cin direct coordination with our federal intelligence and law enforcement partners as we continue to closely monitor and thwart any potential threats to the homeland\u201d.
Jacqueline, a woman who was giving out \u201cStop the War on Iran!\u201d placards on behalf of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, said even if protests did not have any effect in stopping the bombing \u201cat least we can voice that people oppose another endless war in the Middle East.\u201d
\u201cIt\u2019s not in any our our interest to the people here in the face of the cost of living crisis, murder on the streets by ICE, and the US is not an arbiter or beacon of democracy. I think we\u2019ve all seen that lie pretty clearly now\u201d.
Healthcare worker Christina Perez, 44, said she joined to protest \u201cthe Trump regime in general, all of it\u201d.
\u201cIt\u2019s like constant salt in the wound. You never know what you\u2019re going to wake up to. Why is this person allowed to all these legal atrocities and no one stops him. It\u2019s like rampant tyranny\u201d.
Asked how she felt waking up Saturday to news of the strikes, Perez said:
\u201cUnfortunately, I\u2019m not surprised and why do I have to keep waking up for more terrible shit. We\u2019re being distracted from the things that really matter because you\u2019re constantly being inundated. Americans have legitimate grievances, but there\u2019s never money to solve those things and always money for war.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington (National Times) As news reports circulated that Iran\u2019s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, had been killed in US and Israeli airstrikes on Tehran, anti-war protesters gathered across the United States, including outside the White House and in New York\u2019s Times Square to voice opposition to US military involvement in the region. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t sanctioned by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n