Hours before Joe Biden sneaked out of the country to war-torn Kyiv hundreds of protesters gathered in Washington, D.C. Sunday for the “Rage Against the War Machine” rally.
The anti-war event held at the Lincoln Memorial marked almost one year since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that quickly evolved into a proxy war between NATO and Russia. The speakers were represented by affluent public figures, journalists, artists, and former politicians, including a couple of presidential candidates.
Participants’ key demands included effectively ending military support for Ukraine, facilitating peace talks, reducing the Pentagon budget in favor of addressing numerous domestic issues, disbanding NATO, closing all foreign military bases, refusing interventionism, and dismantling the CIA and military-industrial deep state that thrives on war.
The event was largely perceived as pro-Russian. “A large anti-Ukraine war rally will take place in Washington, DC on Sunday,” posted Fox News, among others. To clarify that such a labeling was incorrect, the Libertarian Party, one of the main organizers, had to put up a statement that it was not a pro-Russian event:
Let us be clear.
We oppose all wars.
We oppose all states who initiate them.
We are not pro-Putin. We are not pro-Russia.
We oppose Russia’s invasion and any initiation of force.
Speaking with The New American, Angela McArdle, the chairwoman of the Libertarian National Committee, stressed that they did not support Russian President Vladimir Putin but tried to educate people about the underlying causes of war and to build a powerful and unifying pro-peace movement.
Still, several attendees were waving Russian flags, and a couple brought red Soviet banners with hammers and sickles.
The sentiment toward Ukraine seemed to distinguish between the Zelensky administration and everyday Ukrainians. The first was accused of being “infiltrated by Nazis,” and the latter were correctly said to be the foremost victim of the ongoing war. Not a single Ukrainian flag was in sight. According to the Daily Beast, some Ukrainians saw the event as anti-Ukrainian and showed up for a five-person counter-protest.
A self-described “Marxist Leninist and American patriot,” anti-war activist and YouTube personality Jackson Hinkle accused the U.S. Congress of having the blood of young Ukrainian and Russian men dying in Ukraine on their hands. “The halls of Congress that they go to vote to send another ten billion dollars to Ukraine, their roofs are dripping with the blood of Ukrainian soldiers,” he said to the cheers of the crowd.
Almost every single speaker stated that the bloated defense budget diverts funds away from pressing domestic issues.
Diane Sare, backlisted by the Ukrainian government for “promoting narratives consonant with Russian propaganda,” along with keynote speakers of the rally Tulsi Gabbard and Ron Paul, said, “Millions are suffering in our own nation because of our foolish insistence on being a global hegemon.”
“Our nation used to lead the world in producing steel, cars and ships,” said Dennis Kucinich, a former U.S. Congressman from Ohio who was a staunch opponent of the Iraq war. “Now, we lead the world in making enemies, confusing defense with offense. Arming ourselves to the teeth, spending trillions of dollars to advance an aggressive empire through the promotion of war. But the wars, my dear friends, have come home.”
The warning of a global war that would result in mutual nuclear annihilation was another theme of the speeches.
“The war machine of NATO will destroy life on the planet. It’s in the process of doing it right now,” said Dr. Jill Stain, the Green Party’s former nominee for president.
Describing the Ukrainian situation as a “catastrophe” that can “grow out of control,” Scott Horton, the editorial director of Antiwar.com, said that in a direct conflict between NATO and Russia, billions would be killed. Therefore, there’s an urgent need for a ceasefire and peace negotiations. Horton went on to describe how the expansion of NATO and American meddling in Russian domestic politics in the 1990s, along with regime changes, aka “color revolutions,” in the former Soviet republics orchestrated by the U.S. government were major driving forces feeding Russian militarism.
“The only thing we should be calling an enemy is the very idea that there can be a right side in the toxic tangle of organized mass murder that is every war,” said David Swanson of the World BEYOND War, saying that he’s not even demanding the government stop funding the Ukrainian war to redirect funds to Americans, but foremost to avoid nuclear war that would “end us all.”
Tulsi Gabbard, a former U.S. Representative from Hawaii, also accused the military deep state and its government puppets of leading the country to a nuclear Holocaust with no regard for the lives of ordinary Americans. “This proxy war that we are fighting against Russia right now could turn at any moment into a direct conflict between the United States/NATO and Russia,” Gabbard said, warning that “anyone with a little bit of common sense knows that a cold war can at any moment turn into a hot war against a nuclear-armed country.” “Such wars can not be won,” she emphasized.
Ron Paul, a former U.S. Congressman from Texas and the nation’s most prominent libertarian, said that the solution to the war issue is “simple”: “End the Fed!” This statement was met with loud cheers and chants of “End the Fed!” Paul went on to describe how the federal government bankrupts Americans with taxes, money printing, and perpetual war. Ordinary citizens themselves would likely never go to war, so they are are lied to, frightened, and shamed into supporting the war machine.
Speaking with The New American, Paul said that the key to ending the war is building a grass-roots anti-war movement and educating people to change their hearts and minds about the war machine.
Please stay tuned for the interviews.
