On March 7, several dozen protesters gathered near Betty Brinn Children’s Museum in Milwaukee. It was part of a nationwide call to action to stop the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran.
The hour-long demonstration started with speeches from protest organizers. Farzeen Harunani is an organizer with the Black Alliance for Peace Network. She shared her thoughts on the war.
"I’m just sitting and crying because I feel like I am living in the center of evil," said Harunani. "I am living in the center of a place that is sending so much money abroad to murder people. How am I just supposed to live knowing that people who look like me are going to get slaughtered?"
More than 1,200 people in Iran have died since the U.S. and Israel first launched airstrikes on Feb. 28, according to the country’s government. One of them was Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Some have celebrated the U.S. intervention, hoping for an end to an oppressive regime, which killed many protesters in a crackdown that started late last year.
But there have also been many civilian causalities. An explosion from an airstrike in Iran likely caused the deaths of over 100 children at an elementary school, according to a U.S. military investigation.
Matty Lind is with the Party for Socialism and Liberation in Milwaukee. He says the U.S. should focus on improving life for Americans instead of spending billions on war.
"This money that is being used to blow up children in schools somewhere else could instead be used to actually improve the conditions here in the United States," Lind said.
President Trump has said the U.S. will continue its attacks on Iran until there is an “unconditional surrender.”
