On This Day in History: The Largest Protest of All Time
February 15th, 2003 should be a famous day in world history. But most Americans have erased it from memory.
As the U.S. invasion of Iraq loomed, protests erupted around the globe. Rallies in Rome, Madrid, and London each attracted over a million people. In total, up to 25 million took to the streets across 600 cities. It was the largest day of demonstrations recorded in human history.
Their anger was at America’s greed for oil, senseless militarism, and disregard of international law. The U.S. was ready to offensively invade a country that had no connection to 9/11 without approval from the U.N. Security Council.
A decade after the end of the Cold War, America was at the height of its global hubris. The U.S. believed it could ignore the international community because it was simply bigger and stronger.
More sinisterly, the Bush administration misrepresented facts to justify the invasion. Secretary of State Colin Powell famously gave a speech that was littered with falsehoods about Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction”
As millions of ordinary people protested such a hostile and dangerous war, the American government continued on its…
