despite the lack of a draft, a new anti-war movement—this time with global reach—sprung up in the period between the crimes of 9/11 and the illegal u.s. invasion of iraq in march 2003. 

the february 15th, 2003, protests were the largest demonstrations in human history, uniting people around the world in opposition to the unthinkable prospect that the u.s. would actually launch its threatened “shock and awe” assault on iraq.  

some 30 million people in 800 cities took part on every continent, including antarctica.

this massive repudiation of war, memorialized in the documentary We Are Many, led new york times journalist patrick e. tyler to comment that there were now two superpowers on the planet: the united states and world public opinion.

the u.s. war machine demonstrated total disdain for its upstart rival, and unleashed an illegal war based on lies that has now raged on through many phases of violence and chaos for 17 years. 

with no end in sight to u.s. and allied wars in afghanistan, iraq, somalia, libya, syria, palestine, yemen and west africa, and trump’s escalating diplomatic and economic warfare against iran, venezuela and north korea threatening to explode into new wars, where is the second superpower now, when we need it more than ever?

by medea benjamin and nicolas j.s. davies, codepink.org

february 14, 2020

resist!