Russell Brown, a seasoned peace activist and a veteran of U.S. war in Viet Nam, envisioned the walk and reached out to many groups, inviting advice and participation. He walked the entire route, guiding the members with his friendly, kindly determination. Just before the walk began,
he shared with the group his deep disturbance over news of a U.S. airstrike, October 3rd, on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in northern Afghanistan.
The walkers readily agreed to take a slight detour on the walk’s first day. Our signs echoed those held by Western activists outside Baghdad hospitals over a decade before: “To Bomb This Site Would Be a War Crime” –a plea that had gone too many times unheeded. In Syracuse we added “Don’t Bomb Afghan Hospitals” by way of explanation. Assembled in front of St. Joseph’s Hospital, we distributed fliers remembering the 30 people killed in Kunduz. Thirteen were healthcare workers; three were children.
Despite the hospital staff’s frantic calls to the U.S military, the strafing, tightly focused on their building, had continued in six blasts, spaced at 15 - minute intervals, from 2:05 a.m. to 3:15 a.m