Minneapolis, MN – On Sunday, December 23, 30 people gathered to demonstrate against U.S. wars, at an action titled “Send an Anti-War Message for the Holidays – Stop Endless Wars.” The protest took place in Uptown Minneapolis near a commercial node full of holiday shoppers, as well as the busy Uptown Transit Station where eight different bus routes converge.

Demonstrators demanded immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from all foreign wars and interventions, questioning whether President Trump’s recent announcement that he had ordered thousands of troops out of Syria and Afghanistan would truly end illegal U.S. interference in those countries.

“Now they’re going to privatize the war. And we’re going to pay for it with our taxes,” said Kristin Dooley of Women Against Military Madness (WAMM). “Rather than ending direct U.S. efforts to control the Middle East, bringing the troops home, while good – and we’re glad they’re home – is not going to end us messing with the Middle East. And that’s why when we do our chants, we don’t just say bring the troops home, we say stop sending the drones, stop sending the jets, stop killing people all over the world.”

The protesters also condemned the continuing U.S. involvement in the war on Yemen, waged largely by Saudi Arabia but supported by U.S. arms, intelligence, aerial refueling and warships.

“In American politics, the war on Yemen gets sidelined and ignored,” said Wyatt Miller of the Anti-War Committee. “It shows how things like Trump’s Muslim travel ban – which was designed to make specific countries the target of dehumanizing, anti-Muslim bigotry – helped to normalize mass death and trauma inflicted on ordinary people in Yemen.”

Sherilyn Young from MN Caravan Solidarity connected President Trump’s deployment of troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to U.S. wars and imperialism, noting the history of U.S. interventions in Central American countries as a cause behind the mass exodus of refugees and asylum-seekers from Honduras and elsewhere in the region.

Young called attention to the Soto Cano air base in Honduras, where U.S. military personnel historically have been stationed for covert operations across Central America. “That base still exists,” she said. “Folks in Honduras have said that they want it changed into a commercial air base for cargo shipments, but it is not. It is still used for war.”

The action was called by the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition.

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