Rochester Anti-war Movement Responds to 2008 Election

Rochester, NY. Following Election Day 2008, Rochester Against War, Rochester Students for a Democratic Society, Campus Antiwar Network, Military Families Speak Out, and local Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans stand together to make the following statement:

Indy TV Video of Press Conference

For nearly two years, major polls have shown that a majority of Americans want an end to the war in Iraq. The war has not "brought democracy" to the Middle East. It has not improved the lives of the Iraqi people, nor has it reduced the violence in the region. In fact, it has done exactly the opposite.

For these reasons, we oppose the US war on Afghanistan and the escalation widely being promised by President-elect Barak Obama.

Afghanistan and Iraq are vastly different countries, with cultures stretching far back in human history. However, the US wars on these two societies have been waged with frighteningly similar results: hundreds of thousands dead, infrastructures destroyed, age-old cultures uprooted, veterans and their families left to fend for themselves.

We- students, veterans, and ordinary Americans- will be happy to see and end to eight years of failed policies and fabricated fears. In the midst of the current economic crisis, we cannot afford to spend billions of our tax dollars on war year after year. We believe in change, and change must come to both Washington and to Wall St. The change we want to see in 2009 is an end to the US war on Afghanistan. After all, as it has been said: "No Afghani citizen ever gambled my life savings away."