Protesters rally across US after Iran strikes and reports of Khamenei killing | US news
As news spread that Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei had been killed in US and Israeli airstrikes on Tehran, anti-war protesters gathered across the US, including outside the White House and in New York’s Times Square, to voice their opposition to US military intervention in the region.
“It wasn’t approved by Congress, so what Trump is doing is on his own terms, which makes him a fascist and turns the country into a fascist state,” said Sue Johnson, one of the protesters.
“I couldn’t wait. He’s such an impatient kid. He said, ‘ICE didn’t work, so let’s go stir things up in the Middle East. He bombed Iran for no particular reason,'” Trump said.
“No president can attack, hijack, or bomb another country without the permission of Congress,” he said, but acknowledged that “it doesn’t matter what Congress thinks because this president goes and does whatever he wants to do to any country.”
This sense of fait accompli that has accompanied the Trump administration’s recent foreign policy actions, including the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, also extended to the gathering of several hundred protesters in New York.
Sponsored numerous protests a coalition of leftist groupsIncluding ANSWER Coalition, National Iranian American Council, 50501, American Muslims for Palestine, People’s Forum, Palestine Youth Movement, CodePink, Black Alliance for Peace, and Democratic Socialists of America.
The coalition listed other “emergency protests” on Saturday, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami and Minneapolis.
Others will be held Sunday in smaller cities: Albany, New York; Ellensburg, Virginia; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Decorah, Iowa; Gainesville, Florida and Springfield, Missouri.
“Trump’s unprovoked, illegal attack on Iran is an act of war that threatens to cause unthinkable death and destruction. But the people of this country reject another endless war, and now we will take to the streets and make our voices heard,” organizers said.
New York’s pro-DSA mayor, Zohran Mamdani, said earlier in the day that the US and Israel’s attack on Iran “marks a catastrophic escalation in the illegal war of aggression. Bombing cities. Killing civilians. Opening a new battlefield. Americans don’t want this. They don’t want another war seeking regime change.”
The American Civil Liberties Union joined with several Democratic lawmakers demanding that Congress take immediate action to end Trump’s unconstitutional use of military force against Iran. The veteran civil rights group said it “remains firm in insisting that it is clear in the Constitution that from Vietnam to the war in Afghanistan, both the wars in Iraq and military action against Libya, and the ongoing use of force in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia, decisions about whether to use military force require specific, prior authorization from Congress.”
That sentiment was echoed by Willie Cotton, 48, of Brooklyn, New York. He told the Guardian that he did not believe it was in the US’s interest for Iran to have nuclear weapons “but I am against US bombing”.
“I support the demonstrations in Iran and the thousands of people killed there by the regime. But the United States is not going there to help them or benefit the region, it is going there for its own interests and purposes.”
Cotton acknowledged that Trump, when announcing the attacks early Saturday, told Iranians that an attack on Iran’s theocratic regime was “probably your only chance in generations” to seize power.
“He told Venezuela that, and two minutes later he said it’s our oil,” Cotton said skeptically. “The history of the United States is that they go into these conflicts for their own benefit, not for the benefit of the people there. I don’t think he’s gone out of his way to protect the commercial interests of the United States, including his own.”
“But this is no different from Biden, Obama or the like. I do not support Obama from behind. He imposed the same sanctions that harmed the working people of Iran,” Cotton said.
He added that, as a member of the Socialist Workers Party, he strongly supports Israel defending itself following Hamas’ cross-border attack on the country on October 7, 2023. “It was Iran that organized the bombing campaigns against Israel, and Israel has the right to defend itself.”
“But the United States is not defending itself here… it is advancing towards its goals around the world.”
Protesters gathered as the FBI’s counterterrorism and counterintelligence teams were put on high alert across the country. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in question he is “coordinating directly with our federal intelligence and law enforcement partners as we continue to closely monitor and disrupt any potential threats to our homeland.”
Jacqueline, “Stop the War with Iran!” a woman shouts. Banners on behalf of the Socialism and Liberation Party said that although the protests had no effect in stopping the bombing, “at least we can voice people’s opposition to a new endless war in the Middle East.”
“With the cost of living crisis, the murders that ICE is committing in the streets, and the US not being the arbiter or guide of democracy, this is not in the interest of the people here. I think we’ve all seen the lie of that pretty clearly now.”
Christina Perez, a 44-year-old healthcare worker, said she attended to protest “the Trump regime in general, all of it.”
“It’s like constantly rubbing salt in the wound. You never know what you’re going to wake up to. Why is this person allowed to be subjected to so much legal persecution and no one is stopping it? It’s almost like tyranny.”
When asked how he felt when he woke up to news of the strike on Saturday, Perez said:
“Unfortunately, I’m not surprised by this and why I keep having to wake up to scarier things. We get distracted from the things that really matter because you’re constantly being swamped. Americans have legitimate grievances but there’s never money to resolve them, and there’s always money for war.”
