On June 21, anti-war organizations and activists throughout the Boston area came together for a rally and speak out at Park Street station in downtown Boston to voice opposition to U.S. plans for war and intervention in Iraq. At the rally, Liberation News staff spoke to people, both in attendance and those just passing by, about their thoughts on the situation:
“I don’t want to inherit this world we’ve created with our disastrous interventions overseas. They say those who ignore or don’t remember history are condemned to repeat it and this isn’t a history we want to repeat” – Jennifer, 15, student
“The issue of Iraq is really important because what we do in other countries directly effects what’s going on in our country. It’s really important to make that connection and to understand that the reason why there are real problems in our job market is because we’re using our money to make war in other countries. We should be more towards diplomacy and helping countries maintain their own agency, autonomy and self-determination. If we want to bring freedom, that’s what it really looks like.” – Mukaji, 30, union organizer
“Our country is economically bankrupt and we’re going to war? How do we get this money for these wars? I didn’t pay taxes so we can fund wars, I want my taxes to go to education, to fund schools” – Abdias Maleus, 21, Haitian political hip hop artist.
“When I hear about drone strikes, it touches me very personally and gets me very angry. I’m really frustrated with the way we treat other countries and I think war is the exact opposite of what we need to do.” – Naveh Halperin, 24
“We should all understand that going and killing people isn’t going to solve any problems, instead it will create more problems. The US government should focus on helping the veterans that just returned from war, instead of sending more troops, either [to] get them killed or get other people killed because of them. There is a double standard – [the U.S. is] supporting the Syrian opposition, the majority [of which] is the ISIS, and now we are going to bomb them in Iraq and call them terrorists. [The war in Iraq] didn’t do any good for the Iraqi people, what we see today is just more blood, more people dying. After ten years of the same situation, I hope that we don’t stand here in 2024 and talk about another war that is going to go for another ten years.” – Michel Anastassiou, 29, lawyer, from Syria
“I hope that the more people that are aware of all of this, the more people will support peace, that’s why I’m out here today” – Fadia Alasmar, 22, from Syria
“They are making me beg just to get my service connected disability. The VA system has been screwing over the veterans, and some of them are even dying while waiting to see a doctor, it’s atrocious. How can you ask someone to volunteer for service and then not take care of them when they get injured in service. Something’s really wrong” – Stuart Franklin, 55 year old Vietnam Veteran.
