Emergency Rally for Peace at Courthouse Square Saturday

Links and background

Earlier in the week United States President Donald J. Trump gave the order for the military to assassinate Iranian General Qassem Soleimani at an airport in Iraq, according to the White House.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-killing-qasem-soleimani/

Qassem was the leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, and is thought to have helped supply IEDs that killed American soldiers during the second American Iraq War, according to the Pentagon.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/04/04/iran-killed-more-us-troops-in-iraq-than-previously-known-pentagon-says/

An Iranian-backed militia had stormed the United States embassy during the past few days, which was reported in media outlets worldwide.

https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2020/01/02/photos-reveal-damage-to-us-embassy-in-baghdad-following-attack-by-supporters-of-iran-backed-militia/

A story in the Washington Post revealed that Trump and Qassem had traded insults on Twitter.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/01/03/soleimani-posted-memes-antagonizing-trump-social-media/

Iran has vowed to avenge Qassem’s death, “His pure blood was shed in the hands of the most depraved of human beings,” said Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran’s President says US committed a ‘grave mistake’ in killing top general

According to Wikipedia the CIA had a role in a coup against Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953 to secure oil, and assure the Soviet Union would not have an influence in the county. In 1979 Iran became an Islamic Republic after a series of events during an Iranian Revolution, according to Wikipedia. In 2018 Trump pulled the United States out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran according to Wikipedia.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_nuclear_deal_framework

The Bloomington Peace Action Coalition has protested American wars since the United States invaded Afghanistan after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. In 2003 United States President George W. Bush invaded Iraq. Anti-war protesters have had a regular presence on the Courthouse Square every Wednesday at 5 p.m., since America is still at war, and still has troops in Afghanistan. The war in Afghanistan is the longest war in American history.

http://www.bpac.info/

A recent series in the Washington Post said that Americans were misled on the war in Afghanistan:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/afghanistan-papers/afghanistan-war-confidential-documents/

A November 2019 Costs of War report from Brown University estimates that American wars in the Middle East since 2001 have cost 6.4 trillion dollars:

https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2019/budgetary-costs-post-911-wars-through-fy2020-64-trillion