Hundreds Gather in an Anti-war Protest in Washington, DC, Calls for Dissolution of NATO

Hundreds of protesters gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, for an anti-war event. The speakers at the 'March Against the War Marchine' rally called on the "US government to end its military support of Ukraine in favour of diplomacy, and slashing the Pentagon budget to address numerous domestic issues."

The event comes almost a year after the hostilities between Ukraine and Russia started and features a number of former politicians, public figures, and journalists.

Addressing the crowd, Tulsi Gabbard, former US Congresswoman and presidential candidate, reminded the gathering how during her presidential run in 2020, no other candidate talked about the potential consequences of the new "Cold War and nuclear arms race."

"...Two short years later, what I warned about then is now a reality. This proxy that we are fighting against Russia right now could turn at any moment into a direct conflict between the United States/NATO and Russia," she said, warning that "anyone with a little bit of common sense" knows that a Cold War can at any moment turn into a hot war against a nuclear-armed country."

Former Green Party presidential candidate Dr Jill Stein demanded that Pentagon's budget be slashed. She noted that the enormous budget spent to support the Ukraine war could help mitigate a number of domestic problems in the US.

"This murderous military spending consumes resources desperately needed here at home: by 70,000 people who die each year for lack of health insurance; for a half million homeless people on any given night out in the street; for 33 million marred in student debt; a 100 million in medical debt, 22 million impoverished children and on and on," she said.

Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who fought for the Democratic nomination in 2004 and 2008, mentioned journalist Seymour Hersh's report about the US allegedly blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline.

"In blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline, this government has used illegal and unconstitutional means to destroy the energy resources needed to protect millions of people in Europe during the winter and then to profit from its illegal actions by selling energy to Europe at a four to six times markup," Kucinich said.

Kucinich added that the US government's "greatest talent is to craft misinformation and disinformation to subvert the media and misuse it as an instrument to incite fear and hatred among our people, exciting partisan divisions at home through cross-politics, and stirring ancient hatreds abroad through lies, deceit, false flag operations and provocations which profane the very essence of democracy."

The protesters demanded the dissolution of NATO and peace negotiations with Russia.

Despite participation from hundreds of people, some people, mostly from the left, criticised the protest for hosting speakers with conservative views on social issues.

"I know some people, who would not show up to this peace rally, this anti-war rally, because of some of the speakers they had lined up on stage," Jimmy Dore, a comedian and popular podcast host, said on stage.

"I get what they are saying, 'hey, I want to stop a nuclear war, but not with those people.' The people who won't be attending today never had any intention of doing so. If it weren't for one of the speakers, it would have been the weather. It would have been because they have more important things to do than survive. They will be at home watching CNN, not cover this all day," Dore said.

A small group of pro-Ukrainian counter-protesters were also present at the rally. The two sides remained peaceful and friendly during the event.

All the speakers focused on the military-industrial complex.

"Our nation used to lead the world in producing steel, cars and ships," Kucinich, the former mayor of Cleveland who was a staunch opponent of the Iraq war when he was in office, said during his speech. "Now, we lead the world in making enemies, confusing defence with the offence. Arming ourselves to the teeth, spending trillions of dollars to advance an aggressive empire through the promotion of war. But the wars, my dear friends, have come home."