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NoneUS War Veterans, Military Families and an Iraqi Doctor Speak Out Against the War (2004)

8th December 2004, Manchester, UK. Supporters of anti-Iraq war groups from the US, Britain and Iraq hold a rally against the Iraq war at the Unitarian Chapel, Cross Street, Manchester city centre.

The public meeting is entitled: "End the occupation of Iraq - Bring all the troops home". The line up of speakers is as follows:

Michael Hoffman: Michael took part in the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and on his return to Pennsylvania became involved in the anti-war movement. He is co-founder and national coordinator of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Lou Plummer: Lou served in the US army in the 80s and is the grandson, son, brother and father of men who have served or are serving the military. He is a leading spokesman for Military Families Speak Out and Bring Them Home Now.

Rae Street: Rae is a well known peace activist based in the North West of England. She has travelled the world as part of her campaigning. She is vice-chair of national Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Dr Salam Ismael: 28 year old Dr Ismael is general secretary of the Doctors for Iraq Society. He was head of the junior doctors in Baghdad before the invasion of Iraq. He was in Iraq from the start of the war to June 2004. He was in Fallujah in April 2004 where he treated casualties of this first assault on the city.

John Rees: John is one of the co-founder members of the Stop the War Coalition. He has spoken at meetings across the country and in the Middle East

The meeting is chaired by Ron Senchak. Ron was in the US navy from 1965-68. He joined the movement against the Vietnam war when he left the navy.

The rally launches the Greater Manchester campaign for the 19th March national demonstration in London, which is part of a global day of action. This day marks the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Demonstrations will be taking place in other countries around the world on the same day.

Dr Ismael speaks movingly about the slaughter of two of his own doctor colleagues during the recent attack on Fallujah and reports that over 3000 Iraqis have been killed during the attack. He uses a Powerpoint presentation during his speech showing photos of atrocities committed during the attack on Fallujah.

The two US speakers speak of their brave and tireless work in the US opposing the war. Rae Street exposes the hypocrisy of British warmongers--drawing attention to the fact that Britain has its own weapons of mass destruction. Ron Sanchek, a Vietnam war veteran resident in Manchester, chairs the meeting and speaks about the pressing need to build for the London demonstration against the war on 19th March 2005. John Rees talks about how the anti-war movement has succeeded in keeping the war issue at the top of the agenda in the run up to the coming election.

After all that has happened in Iraq over the past year and half, the sight of people from countries that are on opposites sides of an ongoing war sharing the same platform is remarkable and inspiring. All the speakers receive a warm response and there is a determination to continue the struggle to end this insane war.

This clips shows Dr Ismael speaking to the rally.

See also:

Broadband clip of Rae Street speaking at the rally

Broadband clip of Lou Plummer's contribution to the rally

Broadband clip of Michael Hoffman speaking at the rally

Broadband clip of John Rees' contribution to the rally

Broadband clip of Ron Sanchek summing up

Check out the website of Greater Manchester Stop the War Coalition.


This movie is part of the collection: Manchester Antiwar Videoblog

Director: None
Producer: Chris Edwards
Production Company: None
Sponsor: None
Audio/Visual: sound, color
Keywords: Iraq; doctor; Falluja; Fallujah; war; anti-war; antiwar; peace; manchester; UK; rally; bush; blair
Contact Information: chrisedwards2004@yahoo.com

Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

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Reviewer: Jim Larkin - - May 11, 2007
Subject: Peace through mutiny
Hey Telephone, "peace comes through war...read history". The hell you say. Peace, my friend, came when the troops got so fed up of fighting pointless, bloody wars, based on lies, that they mutinied and dumped their warmongering, chickenhawk leaders. The Russian army in WW1, the US army in Vietnam. Google the word "fragging". Go read: "The Monicled Mutineer"--the suppressed story of the mutinies in the British and French armies during WW1. Viva Vanunu and the refuseniks in Israel. The process is already under way in Iraq and Afghanistan. Read what the Military Families in Britain say in a letter to the London Guardian, 11 May 2007:

"Tony Blair has announced his resignation, but the legacy of his disastrous foreign policy is still with us. In Iraq and Afghanistan we are fighting with no clear objective and no legitimacy. While Tony Blair will now travel the world trading on his reputation as a war leader and earning many millions of pounds, he abandons servicemen and -women to their fate in the wars he started. April saw the largest number of soldiers killed in Iraq in any month since the invasion of March 2003 - 12 died. The people of Iraq want our troops to leave, the people of Britain want the troops home and soldiers themselves have begun to speak out publicly against their misuse. Soldiers from the Staffordshire regiment went public about the real situation in Iraq when they returned last month. Private Paul Barton said: "Basra is lost. They are in control now and the government are just trying to save face." We believe the safety and wellbeing of our soldiers is being fatally compromised by a lack of decent equipment and reasonable medical support both in the field and back at home. We are demanding better treatment for the troops, but we believe more than anything that they need to come home.

Rose Gentle
Reg Keys

Military Families Against the War

Reviewer: Telephone Toughguy - - April 9, 2007
Subject: War sucks
But so do death and taxes. Let's kill every single last person who doesn't want peace. Seriously. Peace only comes from war... read history. 1 extra star for not chopping anyone's head off.

Reviewer: UmarOMC - - May 9, 2006
Subject: Just to counterbalance
...the idiot's review... Try reading Sun Tzu's The Art of War or Machiavelli's The Discourses... war's never about justice, it's ALWAYS been about MAKING MONEY so how ELSE do you make money off of Iraq?

DUMBASS

Reviewer: saddam - - March 12, 2006
Subject: It must be true!
AS a former world leader myself, I had to believe everything this guy said. at his age he appears to be perhaps 25 he is not only a doctor who has practiced medicine for years but also was Âthe chief doctor of all of Iraq  so everything he said was so believable.

After explaining his wonderful credentials he went on to explain that it was not the people in Fallujah who were to blame for killing the contractors, burning their bodies and dragging their corpses around town. It was a Americas fault. And the contractors were Americans and so they deserved it.

That is because America starves babies 5000 a day! Just to think those Americans tried to hide their crimes by making up lies about the oil for food scandal. And we all know it is BushÂs fault for these sanctions as we all know he was president back in 1995 when the sanctions started not Clinton.

The doctor is right we all need to watch Aljazeera to learn the truth

As everyone knows the Americans are in Iraq just to steal the oil, and the Americans had to come back because they are so stupid the first time they invaded Iraq in 1991 for oil those stupid Americans forgot to steal the oil and have had to come back to steal it!