Tears of Empire

By Mumia Abu-Jamal

With the dramatic fall of Kabul, through the forces of the Taliban, the alligator tears of the political class are falling,9-; decrying the costs of U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

What has been thoroughly forgotten, however, is the unprecedented mass protests of February 2003, before the war began. When the earth shook with antiwar fervor in countries across the globe.

Then president George W. Bush would ignore these protests as a mere “focus group,” his words, “focus.”

In the 2004 book, The Citizens of the Empire, author and critic, Robert Jensen recounted, “the worldwide actions on February 15th, 2003, were the single largest political demonstration in history.”

Millions of people all over the globe poured into the streets to try to derail the Bush administration’s mad rush to war.

How, in an alleged democracy, can the government so easily ignore the views of millions? It happened and chaos came to Afghanistan, and wreaked havoc for over 20 years. What if the protest had won? We will never know.

—Prison Radio, August 17, 2021

https://www.prisonradio.org/commentary/tears-of-empire

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