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Don Schrader holds a sign protesting U.S. military operations during a rally at Galleria Plaza on Saturday.
Don Schrader holds a sign protesting U.S. military operations during a rally at Galleria Plaza on Saturday.

Groups condemn war in Iraq

Dozens of people gathered in the Galleria Plaza on Saturday morning to protest continued U.S. military involvement overseas.

"Gaza, Gaza, don't you cry. Palestine will never die" protesters chanted as traffic passed in the sunny morning.

Stop the War Machine and Iraq Veterans Against the War teamed up to organize the event, which took place on the sixth anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

"What we are really trying to do is make people aware that the war is still going on," said Joe Callan of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Callan was in the Marine Corps and served multiple tours in Iraq.

"So many people are oblivious to the conflicts overseas, and we've been involved in them since 2001," he said. "Six years ago yesterday, I was crossing the border from Kuwait into Iraq and going into battle. We did that multiple times. We are still doing that, and there are still young men and woman out there fighting and dying."

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Callan said Americans should question why the military is still involved in the conflict.

"The sad thing is that I don't even know if anyone still knows why we are over there. I don't, and I've been there three times," he said.

Bob Anderson of Stop the War Machine said Saturday's protest was the second of two over the weekend.

"This is the sixth anniversary since the start of the war in Iraq, so we are here protesting that the war is still going on and actually continuing without much change," he said. "We are here particularly because this is where Congressman Martin Heinrich's office is located."

Heinrich voted in support of House Resolution 34 in January, a resolution Anderson said allowed Israelis to start a massacre in Gaza.

"We are trying to let him know that we don't think that's OK," he said.

Heinrich's office could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Rey Garduno, Albuquerque city councilor for District 6, was also in attendance Saturday. He said the United States needs to stop spending valuable resources on foreign conflicts while there are problems at home.

"We are wasting money thinking we can police the rest of the world, and we can't," he said. "So, we need to start looking at what we can do to divest ourselves from these terrible occupation wars that we started over eight years ago and have continued under the falsest of pretenses."

Callan said the U.S. should get out of the conflict for the sake of maintaining good relations with other nations.

"The tactics that we're using to fight terrorism are actually creating an entire generation that is going to hate America," he said. "They say that we are spreading democracy, and sure, maybe we are. We're spreading democracy 5.56 mm at a time, which is the size of an M-16 round. No matter how you slice it, you can't kill someone's dad or their older brother and expect them to be your friend afterwards."

Dan Black, also of Iraq Veterans Against the War, said November's election didn't seem to change the country's policies toward Iraq and the Middle East.

"There is so much more that we could be doing with the money it's taking to fund these conflicts here in our country instead of continuing down this destructive path that we're traveling," he said. "We now have a president that has promised to end the war in Iraq, but there are still obvious war clouds forming over Pakistan, Gaza and Afghanistan."

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