04/10/2026
Yesterday, March 8th, a small but powerful crowd came together in Cathedral Square to denounce the imperialist war being waged against the Iranian people. The full text of the speech given by Mobile Democratic Socialists of America can be found below.
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On the Cost of Imperialism
What is the cost of imperialism? Today, that cost is 25 billion in tax payer dollars. Do the math. Crunch the numbers and carry the one; Trump’s war costs, at least, 625 million dollars every twenty four hours. This is the price the Trump administration is willing to pay each and every day, so you don’t see his shame. That is money for not only your life, but also that of our neighbors. Money that could be teaching our children. Money that could be caring for our sick and elderly. That is money that could’ve been spent tackling the housing crisis and the affordability crisis. Instead, it was used to start a war to distract you from our pe*****le president and his friend Jeffery Epstein; it was used to inflame the affordability crisis by raising gas prices worldwide; it was used to spread hatred and violence disguised as freedom and democracy.
There is yet another, higher, cost to imperialism, the human cost. It takes both money and lives to maintain an empire. Thousands have been directly impacted by American-Israeli aggression across the Middle East. Over 200 children have had their lives taken away. Imperialist values deprive children of the chance to grow and learn, leaving their parents and siblings to silently grieve under the threat of airstrikes. Some estimate that over 9,000 people in total have died and another 40,000 people have been injured. An untold number of human lives have been altered and irreparably damaged. All in order to keep Donald Trump out of prison,while also enriching his corrupt family and corporatist friends. In a final attempt to cover his shame, he threatened to annihilate an entire people and their culture. On Trump’s command, American bombers took off from their airbases and set course across the Atlantic. They were moments away from Iran’s coast before he backed down.
And what has our government bought with our money and the blood of so many; what has the empire gained from this senseless destruction? The strategic position of the US has not been strengthened, those who they were supposedly liberating are no more free than before, and the spineless cowards in congress refused to exercise the people’s authority, reaffirming Trump’s ability to do this all again. The actual gains from this war? Israel has strengthened their position in the Middle East. The whole world is distracted from the Epstein Files and the genocide in Gaza. 25 billion dollars wasted! Thousands of lives snuffed out! All just to keep Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, and their allies out of prison. If you get caught with a joint, you’ll go to prison and be fined into poverty, but when our President rapes children he just starts another war before retreating to his golf course. This is genocidal politics to cover up shame and moral decay.
What is our response to their shame? Compassion, not for the pe*****les and murderers who perpetuate imperialism, but for the victims of it. Compassion for Iranians placing their bodies between nuclear power plants and bombs means understanding the symbols of American-Israeli power and Iranian survival. Compassion is both the cost and solution to imperial rot, not complacency in it. Compassion is not looking away from bloodshed, it is learning about one’s own humanity. Compassion is as much about humanity as it is about accountability. It is a radical sacrifice of one’s humanity to punish and hold accountable the inhuman monsters at the imperial core. Shame dies in the light of compassion. To be seen is to be loved, to see is to learn, and both are fundamental to the radical compassion we need in today’s shameful, inhumane world.
We live today in a world of contradictions. Contradictions between promises of peace and violent actions; between positions of power and the abusers that hold them; between what we are told to believe and what we inherently know to be true. These contradictions are the fruits of a corrupt tree rotting from its core which provides cover for abusers while their victims suffer. The politics of the Trump administration are the politics of abusers and manipulators. They are trying to gaslight you into thinking that they are righteous and that your anger impotent, but your anger is righteous, it is compassionate and they are afraid of it. Don’t be afraid to see ugly truths. Don’t be afraid to love the oppressed. Don’t be afraid to hold those in power accountable. Accept your power; the strength of compassion. Though tested by oppression, tyrants can never break it because it is the very actions of oppression that tempers your strength.
