People in Chicago Chanting "More war? Hell no! F*** you, NATO!"

Source: Chicago Tribune

Yesterday Janet Weil of CODEPINK reported on what she had seen on the livestream from Chicago where thousands are gathered to protest a summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO projects violence on Afghanistan and so many other places that aren't even remotely near the north Atlantic region.

Janet was gratified to see more people, and younger people, turning out to protest ongoing NATO wars of aggression. She said at times in the past it felt like all of six people in the US were actually paying attention to the decade+ long war in Afghanistan.

When the Occupy movement broke out last September, it was economic injustice that drove the 99% into the streets with their creative messaging. We anti-war protesters had crowd envy. We joined in eagerly and chanted: "How do we fix the deficit? End the wars, and tax the rich."

Now comes Chicago in May, 2012. Originally both NATO and the G-8 confab of super wealthy nations were to converge in Chicago ("To practice using their militarized policing methods," says my husband) but the G-8 decided to head to secluded Camp David in Maryland instead.

One of the big marches yesterday was to the venue where the president's wife was hosting other NATO leaders' spouses at a posh meal. Hey 1%, do you hear us calling you out?

It would take a long time to describe everything that people are protesting against when they turn out against NATO. Here's just one example from Financial Times:

 Nato seeks orderly Afghanistan exit

Barack Obama warned of “hard days ahead” in Afghanistan on Sunday as Nato leaders meeting in Chicago tried to plot a path out of the country that does not open the way to civil war.

After meeting Hamid Karzai, his Afghan counterpart, the US president talked about a new situation after 2014 when “the war as we understand it is over” but where the US and Nato would remain partners of Afghanistan.

 

Photo source: JT Scott on Facebook.