Around 30 anti-war activists and students rallied on Sept. 1 at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. on the first day of classes to demand Stanley McChyrstal be fired from his teaching job and tried for war crimes. Demonstrators also called for an immediate end to the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
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McChrystal, who was a senior military leader of the U.S./NATO occupation of Afghanistan until he was forced to resign in July 2010 was hired as a Senior Fellow to teach a graduate seminar in “leadership and globalization” this fall. His appointment outraged many community members and students. The class should more rightly be called, “Occupation and Genocide 101.” Tens of thousands of civilians and 1,275 U.S. troops have died in the Afghan war, which McChrystal helped escalate by advocating for more troops last year.
“Why do we want war criminals in the city of New Haven?” said Jon Lugo of Unidad Latino en Acción. In past years, Yale has hired several known war criminals including former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, who launched brutal attacks on the indigenous liberation movement of the EZLN in Chiapas.
While McChrystal’s salary at Yale has not been released, he is reported to make $60,000 for every speaking engagement he takes on. In the same week that McChrystal’s job was announced, Yale fired 250 workers. Connecticut’s unemployment rate is just below 10 percent.
Demonstrators at the Sept. 1 rally shouted “Shame on Yale, put McChrystal in jail!” and “No Yale, no bail, jail McChrystal now!” Several students and passers-by joined the demonstration when they heard about McChrystal’s teaching position.
The demonstration was organized by the ANSWER Coalition and sponsored by Greater New Haven Peace Council, Unidad Latina en Acción and the Middle East Crisis Committee.
