Protest of President's Plan for Afghanistan

Peace groups plan to protest President Obama’s plans to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan and to demand an end to the war. several peace groups will hold an emergency protest demanding an end to the war.
Pete Shell of the Thomas Merton Center Antiwar Committee says the longer the military stays there, the more resistance will grow. "The war is unpopular, it’s unwinnable, and it’s wrong.”
The president says the troops are needed because the situation has deteriorated and the additional personnel will help train the Afghan military so they can take over the job of security sooner. Mr. Obama says troops would start leaving in July 2011.

The protests are part of a nationwide day of actions sponsored by a wide variety of antiwar and peace groups, including the National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations, United For Peace and Justice, Code Pink, Iraq Veterans Against the War, ANSWER, and others.

The Pittsburgh protest will take place this evening at 6 o'clock in Schenley Plaza in the Oakland part of Pittsburgh. Legal observers from the ACLU are expected to be present in order to help ensure that protesters’ constitutional rights are respected. That's the scene of more than 100 arrests during the G20 Summit in September.