On October 14, Panetta spoke at an event at George Washington University about his new book. CODEPINK teamed up with the George Washington Progressive Student Alliance to host a protest outside of the event. We passed out hundreds of fliers about the killer drone program under Panetta, and hollered over the megaphone about war criminals not being welcome on campus.
I made my way into the event and took a seat in the front row. The university president fawned over Panetta, who entered the room to a standing ovation.
Panetta bemoaned miniscule cuts to the massively bloated defense budget, saying that it is harmful to our national security. When he mentioned the sequester in that context, I couldn't stay in my seat any longer. "We need more cuts to the Pentagon's budget!" I said loudly, trying to move toward the stage so he would be able to hear me. "We don't want money for war spending, we need that money here at home," I continued. "Stop pushing the President to go deeper into war. Young people are sick of it, and the opinions of war criminals like yourself are not welcome here!" As I was talking, a large security guard plucked me up by my jacket and quickly yanked me out of the room.
Three years after my first disruption of Panetta, more than ever I stand by my words. I would do it again, and honestly, I probably will do it again. Whether it's Leon Panetta, or Hillary Clinton. I'm horrified at the prospect of Clinton being the more "liberal" Presidential choice in 2016. If President Obama campaigned for hope and change, but ultimately enshrined some of Bush's most egregious foreign policies, what are we in store for next from explicitly pro-war candidates?
Many young people are sick of these war-mongers running the United States (and I know plenty of older folks who are too!). Over the summer of 2014, the youth wing of CODEPINK launched a Youth Manifesto to declare that there is No Future in War. Using that as a resource, we've launched a youth outreach campaign to help support student groups organize and mobilize. In a very short amount of time we've had an overwhelmingly positive response from students who are sick of being robbed of their futures. It's time for the old, worn out politicians, who have dragged us into more war just to get elected and fatten their wallets, to step aside. We deserve better than the broken two-party system that routinely forces us to choose the "lesser of two evils."
I, for one, am certainly not "ready for Hillary."
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