The Party for Socialism and Liberation’s presidential candidate Peta Lindsay and vice-presidential candidate Yari Osorio denounced the growing U.S. aggression against defenseless civilians in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the jingoistic threats against Iran by both Democratic and Republican candidates.
“In 2008 people voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama because they were tired of the Bush agenda and the war in Iraq,” said Lindsay, who is currently on a national tour and whose PSL ticket is on the ballot in 13 states this election year. “Yet the last four years have brought greater deployments abroad, more deaths of soldiers and civilians, more illegal U.S. war and occupation.”
“Today, Stanford and New York University researchers reported that 98 percent of the people killed by U.S. drones since 2004 in Pakistan were civilian, including almost 200 children. The researchers engaged in an on-the-ground study of villages where the true number of victims could be ascertained.
“This genocidal and gruesome method of murder that targets people from thousands of miles away must end immediately, as well as all U.S. aggression in the Middle East and elsewhere. My running mate Yari Osorio and I express our solidarity with the people of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria, where U.S. and NATO bombings and occupations continue to cause human suffering on an unprecedented scale.
“My campaign stands in stark contrast to both parties of big business and war, and I believe our anti-war message truly resonates with the vast majority of people of the United States. We are experiencing the highest levels of unemployment and poverty in the United States in decades, while we are told we must face hundreds of billions of dollars more in social cuts.
“Students are shouldering enormous school loans, and 147 million people in the U.S. are in poverty or near poverty.
“Instead of building thousands of drones, fighter jets and tens of thousands of bombs to sow death and destruction, we need to shut down all military bases, and return all the troops home to meaningful jobs, education, and full health care. We need a massive jobs program for the people and it could be easily done by using the trillion-dollar Pentagon budget to meet the needs of people instead,” added Lindsay.
Lindsay has a long record of anti-war activism. As a high school student, she became involved in anti-war actions Washington, D.C., soon after Sept. 11, 2001. She was a key organizer of mass marches there to oppose Bush’s wars.
While highly critical of the Obama administration’s war and occupations, Lindsay is just as opposed to Mitt Romney’s avowedly right-wing program and his equally jingoistic foreign policy stance. She issued a recent statement declaring that Romney’s ‘47 percent’ remark shows his “open and flagrant contempt for the people.”
Commenting on Obama’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 25, Lindsay denounced his open threat to Iran, where he declared, “Make no mistake: a nuclear-armed Iran is not a challenge that can be contained.” The United States still possesses thousands of nuclear warheads and is the only country to have ever used them.
Lindsay, a founding member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, said, “Everywhere Yari and I campaign, we urge people to stand up against war. Join us in cities across the country on Oct. 6. Dozens of protests will take place on that day to mark the 11th anniversary of the U.S. war on Afghanistan, and to demand ‘No War or Sanctions on Iran or Syria,’ ‘End the Occupation of Afghanistan’ and ‘Stop Killer Drones.’”
