A day of action marked the 20th consecutive year of U.S. war
on the people of Iraq just two days before the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
holiday, borrowing heavily from his timeless anti-war lessons and legacy.
On Jan. 15, 1991, the U.S. military first invaded Iraq,
relentlessly attacking with aerial bombardments that cruelly targeted innocent
civilians and critical infrastructure, such as water purification systems. In
the ensuing 20 years, untold millions of innocent Iraqi men, women and children
have been senselessly murdered, maimed, tortured and displaced by U.S. military
and economic warfare.
Thousands of service members of the U.S. military have
also died or suffered debilitating physical and psychological injuries. Such
untold human suffering serves no other purpose than the enrichment of a few
multi-national banks and corporations.
The Jan. 15 day of action in Washington, D.C., was initiated
by the local branch of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker and was supported by a
wide array of anti-war organizations which joined together to form the January
15 Peace Committee. The committee included: Veterans for Peace; Iraq Veterans
Against the War; Gold Star Families Speak Out; Code Pink; and the ANSWER
Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), among many, many others.
The day began with an early morning “Mass of Repentance for
War” at Sacred Heart Church. The service was led by retired Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton from Detroit and sponsored by the peace and justice organization, Pax
Christi of Metro D.C.
Following the service, about 200 people assembled outside
the church holding banners and placards with anti-war slogans for a march to
the White House through the streets of Washington, D.C. The march was warmly
received by the local community, receiving repeated honks of solidarity from
passing vehicles and thumbs up from passers-by on foot.
On arrival, the marchers formed a large circle encompassing
nearly the whole of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House. During the
vigil that followed, powerful anti-war remarks were delivered by those in
attendance and extensive passages of Dr. King’s speeches were played, their
potent messages still as relevant today as they were in his own time.
Banners bearing some of the most famous and enduring
quotations of Dr. King—including “a nation that continues year after year to
spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is
approaching spiritual death” —painted a grim backdrop to the facade of the
White House and pointed to the hypocrisy of the claims that the United States
is spreading “freedom and democracy” throughout the world.
Later that afternoon an anti-war teach-in was held at
Foundry United Methodist Church. Speakers included Bishop Gumbleton, Iraq War
veteran Camilo Mejia, Joyce and Kevin Lucey, the parents of deceased Iraq war
veteran Jeff Lucey, former U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright, former CIA analyst Ray
McGovern, Medea Benjamin of Code Pink and Brian Becker, the National
Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism).
Joyce and Kevin Lucey gave moving accounts of their
experience of their son Jeff’s psychological trauma as a result of his time in
Iraq, which ultimately led to him tragically taking his own life. Brian Becker
said that the mounting death tolls of Iraqis are not mere numbers but represent
the lives of innocent human beings and announced that this coming March 19 will
be a nationwide day of local demonstrations against the ongoing U.S. wars on Iraq
and Afghanistan.
The day of action came to a close later that night with a
candlelight vigil outside the White House, marking the precise moment the first
U.S. invasion of Iraq began – now 20 long years ago.
