Protesters oppose Obama military decision
By Gary McLendon
Democrat and Chronicle, December 5, 2009
Hundreds of people, expressing disillusionment with President Barack Obama’s decision this week to send 30,000 additional troops to war in Afghanistan by summer, marched in protest Friday through downtown and rallied at the federal building on State Street.
Many protesters — including former Obama campaign volunteers — concluded Obama is not the “peace president” they envisioned. Many charged Obama with placing more value on the profitability of multinational corporations than on human lives.
Filmmaker Mara Ahmed of Pittsford, a member of Rochester Against War, said the war in Afghanistan has produced more than 700,000 disabled or orphaned children, and called the war “a moral and ethical crisis of historic proportions.”
RAW member Brian Lenzo, 28, said the stated premise of America’s Afghanistan involvement — the 9/11 attacks and the war on terrorism — obfuscates U.S. efforts to control oil and natural gas pipelines from the Caspian Sea to the Indian Ocean.
Signed petitions, opposing continued U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, were accepted by a representative of Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, at the federal building.
The Rev. James Swarts told the more than 200 people gathered that additional petitions will be presented to other area political representatives by Monday.
GMCLENDN@DemocratandChronicle.com