US Protesters Decry Trump’s Act of War against Iran

Angry protests were held in at least 70 locations throughout the US on Saturday, decrying President Donald Trump’s decision to authorize the killing of a senior Iranian general as an act of war.

Dozens of planned protests were spearheaded nationwide by Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, a US-based anti-war coalition, Fox News reported.

“No justice, no peace. US out of the Middle East,” about 200 protesters chanted outside the Trump Tower in Chicago, the USA Today reported. Protesters held signs that read “stop bombing Iraq” and “US troops out of Iraq.”

The New York Daily News reported that more than 250 people gathered in Times Square before marching down Manhattan’s Seventh Avenue in densely foggy weather.

Belgica Gonzalez told the publication that Trump should work on domestic solutions for poverty and racism instead of starting foreign wars.

“Latin America, Afghanistan, Iraq — It’s enough,” said Gonzalez, 34, a nurse’s assistant from Washington Heights in upper Manhattan. “We have millions of poor. We have to try to fix things here.”

Many protestors opposed war with Iran, and criticized the US killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, calling it an illegal action taken without consulting Congress.

“Why is the US constantly, constantly at war, constantly in other countries intervening? And it’s because war is profitable. Destruction and death is profitable, and that is all the US empire is focused on. It values profits over human lives,” a Times Square protester told NY1.

Several hundred demonstrators associated with Massachusetts Peace Action gathered in Boston, where they gave speeches, marched and held signs that said “No War on Iran!” and “Money For Jobs & Education Not For War & Occupation.”

Cole Harrison, the group’s executive director, said war with Iran would fail to achieve any of its aims, launch an entire region into a conflict and bring about civilian suffering.

General Soleimani, the deputy head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and a number of others were killed in a US strike that targeted their car on the Baghdad International Airport road on Friday morning.