Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, November/December 2014, pp. 64
Waging Peace
Anti-War Activists Protest President Obama’s San Francisco Visit
Anti-war activists protested Oct. 10 outside San Francisco’s W Hotel, where President Barack Obama was attending a Democratic Party fund-raiser.
Chanting “Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation,” the protesters called for an end to both American drone strikes and the U.S.-led anti-ISIS bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria.
“Every day we hear about another drone that killed families, people gathered for weddings and social events from Pakistan to Yemen,” CODEPINK’s Toby Blomé told the crowd gathered in an area across from the hotel. Other speakers from the ANSWER Coalition and World Can’t Wait reinforced the anti-war, anti-drone message, reiterating their belief that such killings and bombings are immoral and wrong. Magnified by a bullhorn, their voices were projected throughout the downtown area.
In flyers handed out to passersby, the ANSWER Coalition stated: “ISIS wouldn’t exist today as a major force either in Syria or Iraq if it wasn’t for the U.S. military aggression that smashed the secular, nationalist governments in Iraq in 2003 and Libya in 2011. The U.S. bombing of Syrian territory is taking place without the consent of the Syrian government. It is one more U.S. violation of international law and Syrian sovereignty.”
Many at the rally also carried signs urging the Obama administration and Congress to end the annual $3 billion military aid the United States provides to Israel and criticizing the additional emergency funding of $225 million for the country’s Iron Dome system. Protesters also condemned Israel’s brutal seven-week military assault on Gaza this past summer and the lack of any meaningful protest of these actions by President Obama, who hosted Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the White House Oct. 1.
—Elaine Pasquini
