by Don Tagala, ABS-CBN North America Bureau
September 9, 2013
Dozens of protesters made sure their opposition to President Obama’s call to unleash military strikes in Syria were heard loud and clear in Times Square, in New York over the weekend.
Obama said the planned US cruise missile bombing in Syria is a humanitarian act in response to the chemical weapons attack which killed hundreds of Syrians, and that it is America’s moral obligation to launch such an attack to deter further future chemical weapons attack.
Protesters like Bayan USA’s Bernadette Ellorin say she believes otherwise…
“Why would this war be called humanitarian?” Ellorin said, “People in the US don’t have jobs, are hungry, hospitals are closing, education is being cut back, the people here in the US is in Crisis this is not the time to launch any type of humanitarian effort that cost the people here so much money.”
“We have learned that Presidents of this country do not go to war for humanitarian reasons — they lie about their reasons,” Larry Holmes of the Workers World Party said, “They make it sound like humanitarian because they have to convince the people…. They’re always political, economic and cold blooded… and more about Wall Street than about savinganybody from weapons of mass destruction.”
Protesters say that bombing Syria would kill more civilians, polarize the situation even further and is considered a war crime — without the United Nation’s Security Council’s blessings.
In an interview with CBS News, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, warned that if the US strikes Syria… there will be retaliation.
Pro-Assad Ayrian-Americans say they know too well that such a US attack would only bring more hardship for people back home.
Syrian-American, Goerge Talliseh said, “I hope not, we will have big trouble, big problem, we don’t want war, won’t don’t it…”
As Obama presses his case for the airstrike with rounds of media interviews today,the President is said to be going against a growing national anti-war sentiment…
A new CNN/ORC international survey released today showed that even though 8 in 10 Americans believe that the Syrian President gassed its own people, more than 70 percent of those surveyed do not want congress to authorize an airstrike – saying it would not achieve significant goals for the US.
Holmes said, “It has more to do with oil, US domination of the Middle East and they fooled us once, and now we’re smart, and we’re not gonna get fooled again.”
The US senate returned today from its month long recess to take up a resolution that would authorize the planned airstrike butorganizers here say that protests will continue to demand “No to US war on Syria.”
You may reach Don Tagala at don_tagala@abs-cbn.com for more information.
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