In the days following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. Congress passed a joint resolution, the Authorization for Use of Military Force. It allowed the U.S. military to be used against “those responsible” for the attacks. The bombing of Afghanistan began shortly after, on October 7.
Democratic Representative Barbara Lee of California was the only member of Congress to oppose the resolution, stating, “I am convinced that military action will not prevent further acts of international terrorism against the United States.” Six weeks after the September 11 attacks, the USA Patriot Act passed in both houses to “deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States.” The act included numerous encroachments on civil liberties. Only one Senator, Democrat Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, voted against it.
Congressmember Barbara Lee speaks against the war in the San Francisco Civic Center, February 16, 2003.
The Progressive covered opposition to the U.S. war in Afghanistan from the start. As Howard Zinn wrote early in October, for the November 2001 issue, “War is terrorism, magnified a hundred times.”
Over two decades of war, more than 775,000 U.S. troops were deployed to Afghanistan, nearly 2,500 were killed, and 21,000 were wounded. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have died in the war since 2001. The monetary cost of the war to the United States exceeded $2.3 trillion.
Just as Robert M. La Follette had spoken out against entry into World War I, the magazine he founded opposed entry into a war against Afghanistan. History has shown we were right.
While dissent in Congress was virtually nonexistent, across the country, marches and demonstrations opposed the bombing of Afghanistan and the wars that followed there and in Iraq two years later. As early as September 19, 2001, artists in New York City began appearing at demonstrations with sandwich boards reading “Our Grief Is Not a Cry for War.”
Protests against the Afghanistan war in San Francisco, California
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The first march against the impending Afghanistan war, September 29, 2001.
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The first march against the impending Afghanistan war, September 29, 2001.
Protesters marching against the start of the bombing of Afghanistan, October 7, 2001.
Demonstrators linked opposition to the Afghanistan war to U.S. militarization and support for Israel, April 20, 2002.
Union members march against the war, October 28, 2002.
When it became clear that the war in Afghanistan has also led to an invasion of Iraq, protesters were arrested blocking the streets in San Francisco, March 24, 2003.