American Awakening: Hollywood march protests 11th anniversary of US war in Afghanistan

Hollywood, California to demonstrate against the eleventh anniversary of the American invasion of Afghanistan, Press TV reports.

The demonstrators marched across Hollywood Boulevard on Saturday, Press TV correspondent Ross Frasier reported from Los Angeles. They vented anger at the US continued military intervention in Afghanistan and the west of the Middle East, warned against the country’s waging another war in the Middle East, and besought Washington to end its warmongering policies.

They say the US warmachine spends more than USD 400 million per day on the war and regret that military recruiters take advantage of students and poor oppressed youths and send them to die for Wall Street.

Mike Prysner, a veteran of Iraq war and a member of United States-based protest umbrella group A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) in Los Angeles, says the US is unwilling to take responsibility for another military failure like Vietnam. He says instead of admitting defeat, the generals will embark on a multiyear withdrawal that will sacrifice thousands more lives.

“The generals and politicians admit that the war in Afghanistan is lost…,” he noted.

“The US mission in Afghanistan is in crisis, which means that its mission in the entire region is in crisis, but the US government feels that this level of death and destruction is acceptable to the US public.”

The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror.

The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but years into the invasion, insecurity continues to rise across the violence-wrecked country, despite the presence there of thousands of foreign troopers.

The war has caused record-high civilian and military casualties.

The Saturday protest saw the angry public marching to an Army recruiting center. They said the goal was to shut the center down and broadcast the truth about what recruitment really means.

US Army veteran Kevin Baker said their friends, family members, and loved ones were being recruited and sent to “a war that the wealthy have created, that the wealthy have waged and they are not willing to partake in.”

Protesters say with the US election coming up, they are concerned about further warmongering in the Middle East.

They say US politicians are knowingly spreading lies about countries like Iran and Syria in order to boost their political agendas.

“The rhetoric from the US and Israel about Iran specifically is collectively known to be a universal lie. The Iranians since 1979 have suffered sanctions and embargoes by the US,” Baker noted.

Protesters are also demanding an end to the US intervention in Syria’s internal affairs, which they say is creating turmoil and costing lives, and rally in favor of the Middle Eastern countries’ right to determine their own future.

The United States has vowed to “…work with like-minded states to support the Syrian opposition to hasten the day [Syrian President Bashar] Assad falls….”