Waging Peace, Page 52

“No Escalation, Troops Out Now,” Say Californian Protesters

Protesters in San Francisco decry Obama’s decision to send more troops to Afghanistan. Jodie Evans (c) of Code Pink chats with other activists. (Staff Photo E. Pasquini)

ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS took to the streets of San Francisco and Los Angeles Dec. 2, the night after President Barack Obama’s war strategy speech at West Point. In San Francisco, the American Friends Service Committee held a candlelight vigil outside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office in the Federal Building, while a few blocks away the ANSWER coalition and World Can’t Wait staged a louder and more boisterous rally.

“Obama’s decision to escalate the war will only lead to the deaths of more civilians and military personnel,” Richard Becker, ANSWER’s West Coast coordinator, told the crowd. “We need to stop this war, bring the troops home, and end the occupation of Afghanistan.”

Lamenting that the president’s war strategy was not the change they had hoped for, human rights defenders discussed the need to re-energize the Bay Area’s anti-war movement to deal with the war’s escalation and the ongoing U.S. and NATO occupation of Afghanistan.

—Elaine Pasquini