We started with a speakout and picket and then marched to the Grand Hyatt to meet with Cleon Edwards, Senator Clinton's State Deputy Director. The reason why we started with a speak out and march to the hotel was because we wanted to come in to the meeting as a collective force with a confident set of demands. It is estimated that 1.2 millions Iraqis are now dead, there is a refugee crisis of close to 5 million Iraqis and 3,700 US soldiers are no longer alive, including students from CUNY schools in NYC. Essentially, we wanted to approach the meeting demanding answers from our Senator and a Democratic presidential candidate about why the war has in fact ESCALATED since the Democrats took office in November, instead of coming closer to an end.

Apparently very used to softball questions (no offfense to softball players!) by the US media or her more loyal constituents, Cleon Edwards was completely unprepared for the questions asked of him by CAN members. In the beginning, he was quite flustered and defensive and repeated that he didn't come here to be "interrogated" - which really meant he didn't come here to talk to angry antiwar students and instead wanted a more "constructive" conversation. He essentially tried to turn the tables and make us feel bad for having questions he couldn't/didn't want to answer! Almost every student in the room came with excellent questions that ranged from forcing him to articulate what Clinton's posistion was on withdrawal, health care, Blackwater, Iran, the Patriot Act, reparations for the Iraqi people once we leave, and future war funding.

What was quite shocking to all of us was how completely unprepared he was for students who articulated really serious questions and who seemed to know more than he did about what was happening in the Middle East! Some highlights included him, after 3-4 questions about Clinton's position on withdrawal admitting that she wants to keep "residual" troops there for the long term in order to train Iraqi security forces (Jen from IVAW then stated that while in Iraq, she was never trained to train Iraqi security forces, but instead trained to kill.

Because we were not dressed in fancy clothes and had antiwar shirts and signs, we were harassed by the hotel staff and told our meeting wasn't actually scheduled. We were forced to go to the end of the street and wait there until they "confirmed" the meeting. Finally, Cleon Edwards arrived and led us into a conference room, looking a little nervous. We were able to pack 25 students into this meeting.

When he condescended her and said, "I'm sure you learned more than that", Jen responded, "Have you ever been to basic training?" which he was, of course, forced to admit no). He also stated that "Hillary Clinton doesn't even know where she stands on Iran", that he hadn't had time to read Clinton's latest health care plan (comforting!), and that while he respected how concerned we were, after over an hour of us demanding answers, what would be more productive is if we listed our demands more "articulately" and he could present them to Clinton. This is when we handed him our petitions with over 450 students signing on to our VERY articulated demands! I think he was eager to leave at this point. [Editor's Note: Yeah!]