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Sunday, March 20, 2011
About 300 Demonstrate Against Wars
By Olivier Uyttebrouck
Journal Staff Writer
Anti-war protesters who demonstrated Saturday in Albuquerque expressed sympathy for rebels in Libya but little support for United States and European military strikes against the government of Col. Moammar Gadhafi.
Many said that any military action to enforce a United Nations-sanctioned no-fly zone would lead to another long and bloody U.S. war in the Middle East.
A no-fly zone would not amount to an "invisible shield" over the skies of Libya, said Joel Gallegos, a co-organizer of the protest, which drew about 300 people to Civic Plaza to mark the eighth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
"The no-fly zone requires the strafing and bombing of targets on the ground," said Gallegos, a member of Act Now, Stop War, End Racism. "It's going to lead to more deaths and more soldiers getting in the line of fire."
Even as the protesters marched in opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, American and European forces unleashed warplanes and missiles against government forces in Libya on Saturday.
The Pentagon described the attack on Libya as the first round of the largest international military intervention in the Arab world since the Iraq invasion.
George Everett, 86, said the U.S. should aid rebels and civilians in Libya by offering humanitarian aid to refugees but avoid the use of military force.
"It's too dangerous," Everett said as he and others marched on Central Avenue from the University of New Mexico to Downtown's Civic Plaza. "A no-fly zone would lead to more violence."
Bud Ryan, a co-founder of Pax Christi New Mexico, said he feels a kinship with the people of Libya who oppose Gadhafi's rule but opposes military intervention. The United States and other industrialized countries could limit the power of rulers such as Gadhafi by ending the sale of military weapons around the world.
"The solution is to not sell these countries weapons in the first place," Ryan said.
Others said bluntly that the people of the Middle East need to solve their own problems.
"I think we should keep out of it and mind our own business," protester Gary Lowe said. "We can't take care of the world's problems. We can't even take care of our own problems."
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