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Activists protest 5 years of war
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More than 100 Madison activists of all ages gathered around the Capitol last week in a five-day protest marking the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Miles Kristan, an anti-war activist, organized events held at the Capitol and State Street Saturday through Wednesday, with assistance from the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, and the Madison Area Peace Coalition.
Events included rallies — attracting more than 150 people on Wednesday — marches up and down State Street, a silent vigil to honor victims of the war, an event at the Orpheum for Iraq Veterans Against the War, marching in the St. Patrick’s Day parade and showcasing a 20-foot peace-train float with an eight-foot-tall statue of President Bush in an orange jumpsuit.
“The idea of the float was the justice of [Bush] going to jail for his crimes,” Kristan said.
On Wednesday, a group of 40 activists went to the office of U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., and demanded to speak with the senator.
Kristan said the group stayed in the office long enough to get a statement approved by Kohl, until Homeland Security came and Kristan led the protestors out of the office so they would not be arrested.
According to Kristan, the five days of protests achieved their goal to make statewide and national news.
“Thousands of people saw us,” he said. “That was our big goal… because we feel that Madison has a great anti-war history, and so we wanted to properly commemorate the 4,000 dead U.S. soldiers, the half a million Iraqis and also this anniversary.”
City Council President Mike Verveer, District 4, said he spoke with Kristan in the days before the protests, begging him not to get arrested and offering advice on legal issues surrounding protests. No arrests were made in the five days of protests.
Verveer said he gives Kristan credit for stepping forward and bringing this war to the public’s attention.
“Madison had a well-deserved reputation for being a hotbed of political protest, and we’ve kind of lost that,” Verveer said. “Students don’t seem as captivated by the tragic war that is taking place in Iraq. I think [the protest] is totally appropriate.”
Kristan said he and his co-organizers also handed out leaflets, “chalked the hell out of State Street” and sent out mass e-mails through anti-war networks.
For Kristan, this sort of political activism is necessary to get troops out of Iraq and to end the war.
“It’s going to require that the people get politically involved and not put all their hope and faith in any politician,” he added. “This protest is not the first and will not be the last; (we) will continue to protest until this war is over.”
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“For Kristan, this sort of political activism is necessary to get troops out of Iraq and to end the war.”
Necessary, but not sufficient.
Really, do you think peace trains will end the war? Some people are profiting so much from the war that it’ll take a huge escalation to make a difference. Most people have settled onto one side of the fence or the other, and the people that don’t oppose the war now will always beat the drums. 5 years of protests, teach-ins, and fliers have not ended the war. Voting the spineless dems into office has not ended the war. Protesters need to raise the costs of the war until it is no longer profitable for war-hawks. The cost in dollars and lives obviously doesn’t matter to Bush and his ilk, because it’s not their money or their families’ lives.
Bringing the war home of course has mixed results. During Vietnam, ground troops were brought home but the war didn’t end for several more years. I know it’s taboo to do so (and I’m sure both CRs and CDs will attack me for this), but whether you agree with the cause and tactics or not, the NY bicycle bomber was thinking tactically towards his ends: by destroying or vandalizing a recruitment center, it sent the message that the same could happen to any of them, and it raised the costs of building and operating recruitment centers. Unfortunately, most of the “anti-war” movement has yet to adequately tie their tactics with any analysis of cause and effect, i.e. what it will actually take to “bring the troops home.”
They’re not antiwar, they’re just on the other side.