Last week, I was able to capture footage of a protest march against the Iraq War in Manhattan. Participants were marching from the NYC Public Library at 42nd Street and arriving at the U.S. military recruiting station in order to remind people of the millions slaughtered in Iraq in an ongoing, illegal and endless war.

The march was organized to mark the anniversary of sorts for the fifteen years passed since America invaded Iraq and plunged the region into a period of horrific violence.

A recent article from Counterpunch entitled, “The Iraq Death Toll 15 Years After the US Invasion” states:

March 19 marks 15 years since the U.S.-U.K invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the American people have no idea of the enormity of the calamity the invasion unleashed. The US military has refused to keep a tally of Iraqi deaths. General Tommy Franks, the man in charge of the initial invasion, bluntly told reporters, “We don’t do body counts.” One survey found that most Americans thought Iraqi deaths were in the tens of thousands. But our calculations, using the best information available, show a catastrophic estimate of 2.4 million Iraqi deaths since the 2003 invasion.

The number of Iraqi casualties is not just a historical dispute, because the killing is still going on today. Since several major cities in Iraq and Syria fell to Islamic State in 2014, the U.S. has led the heaviest bombing campaign since the American War in Vietnam, dropping 105,000 bombs and missiles and reducing most of Mosul and other contested Iraqi and Syrian cities to rubble.

Demonstrators, about 35 in all, met at the NYC Public library on 42nd St. and marched to the military recruiting station for a rally.

Debra Sweet of The World Can’t Wait organization told me why she was involving herself in putting on today’s event. She said to me:

“2003, March 19th, the U.S. released ‘Shock & Awe’ on the people of Iraq. It was a completely illegitimate, immoral and unjust attack which has led to almost 2 million people being killed in the region. IT WAS A ‘WAR’ THEY SAID AT THE TIME COULD LAST GENERATIONS AND HAD NO BOUNDARIES”. “WHEN YOU ARE THE #1 IMPERIALIST POWER YOU HAVE TO ASSERT THIS DOMINANCE OVER THE MIDDLE EAST. It is more than just profit, it is control and dominance”.

I asked Debra about extremist groups like “al Qaeda who have grown since the U.S. began its attack on the Middle East, using the event’s of 9/11 as an excuse when Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and WMD’s was a total lie”. She replied, “In the 80’s that’s how they were going to get the Russians knocked out of Afghanistan, funding the Islamic fundamentalists. A strategy that had unforeseen repercussions”.

Here is video of the full interview I was able to get with Debra Sweet during the event:

I also captured a Facebook livestream video you can see here:

https://www.facebook.com/AprilWatters4/videos/10215168340272821/

The event was hosted by the NYC War Resisters League and the invite can be seen at their Facebook event page:

Come to the NY Public Library (Fifth Ave. at 41st St.) at 11:30 am to protest the endless war in Iraq — now 15 years since the U.S. invasion — followed by a 12 noon march along 42nd St. to the Times Square military recruiting station (43rd St. and 7th Ave.).

Sponsored by NY War Resisters League, Pax Christi Metro New York, World Can’t Wait, Veterans For Peace/Chapter 34, Brooklyn For Peace, Granny Peace Brigade, KnowDrones.com, NYC Metro Raging Grannies, Peace and Justice Committee of Uptown Progressive Action

To download a 4-up call to action flyer for the demonstration, go to https://nycwarresistersdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/3-19-18_call-to-action1.pdf