Politics on the Hudson

A coalition of about 45 peace organizations plan to protest Vice President Dick Cheney’s graduation speech at West Point on Saturday and to call for the immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

Speakers at the West Point anti-war demonstration will include US Army Reserve Colonel Ann Wright, a 29-year veteran who resigned in March 2003 in opposition to the invasion of Iraq. Carlos and Melida Arredondo of Gold Star Families for Peace are also scheduled to speak. Their son Alexander Arredondo, a Marine, was killed in Iraq on August 25, 2004.

The coalition has obtained a permit from the Highland Falls police for the rally and march. A federal district court has ruled against allowing marchers to go onto the West Point grounds. Anti-war activists have appealed the decision.

Whatever the outcome of the appeal, organizers say they will march to the entrance of West Point following the route they took last year when President Bush spoke there.

“The American people have already rendered their verdict on this disastrous war – they don’t like it, and they want to get out as soon as possible,” said Chuck Bell, coordinator of No War Westchester. “Bush and Cheney have no credible plan for ending the war, and instead have responded by sending thousands of additional troops, and extending US combat tours from 12 to 15 months. Unless Bush and Cheney are stopped, thousands more Americans and Iraqi civilians will die.”