People protest against a possible a U.S. military attack against Syria. (PHOTO BY JULIAN FIELD)
SAN FRANCISCO – When dozens of people braved traffic and the California High Patrol – who threatened to arrest them – to denounce U.S. threats to attack last Saturday, they also became the first anti-war protesters on the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
And, despite an announcement Saturday that the Obama Administration would put down its weapons – at least temporarily – in support of a nonviolent solution, the tone of the demonstrators and critics of the U.S. position were cautious. At best.
The bridge protests, organized by The World Can’t Wait (WCW), almost didn’t happen. The CHP told them they couldn’t cross the new bridge, but they did anyway. The CHP hinted they may be arrested but the rally took place without anyone going to jail.
Critics on the bridge they may be arrested but the rally took place without anyone going to jail.
Critics on the bridge said they while they may not trust Syria, they also don’t trust the U.S. “Obama’s plan to bomb Syria has not been derailed, only delayed.
This war would be illegal, unjust and immoral – even if it has the approval of Congress, the UN, and every other government in the world,” said Stephanie Tang of World Can’t Wait, as Code Pink, the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, WCW and other anti-war and community groups protested on the new pedestrian-bicycle path along the bridge’s eastern span.
“The danger to the Syrian people, and to the entire world given the volatile situation in the region, is enormous and grave. The Obama administration is still making threatening noises against Russia and the Syrian government. The U.N. has not yet released the report of its investigation of the chemical attack,” she said.
President Obama – at the same time he welcomed the agreement to disarm Syria of chemical weapons – confirmed the worst fears of the peace groups when he clarified Saturday that he was still prepared to launch a military strike if he thought the plan failed.
Syrian government chemical weapons are to be destroyed by next year, and “mixing” equipment to be destroyed by November of this year.
According to Tang and World Can’t Wait, the bloody Syrian civil war –where big powers are funding both sides – has killed 100,000 Syrians.
“Atrocities were committed by both the government and the mixed opposition of pro-Western and Islamic Fundamentalists. Neither offers a future for 23 million Syrians, who include refugees from U.S. and Israeli wars on Iraq and Palestine,” said Tang.
“With both the UN and Britain refusing to back the strike, Obama is seeking Congressional approval, but has not promised he would be bound by its vote. Even if Congress votes ‘yes,’ this war of aggression will not be just or legal,” maintained Tang.
However, new facts bubbling to the surface by independent media sources suggest that the Syrian government may not be the real culprit in the sarin gas killing of nearly 1,400 people near Damascus last month.
al-Nusra, known as most aggressive arm of the rebel force, has “affirmed” its allegiance to an al-Qaeda leader who was aligned with Syrian mercenaries backed by the U.S., according to InfoWars, which has also reported the U.S. – via the CIA – has now begun delivering weapons to those same Syrian rebels, many of whom have been linked to al Qaeda.
And a leaked U.S. military report said al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group produced the sarin gas used in the chemical attacks in Syria, according to PressTV, a Middle East media group.
The document, said PressTV, also noted that former U.S. military and intelligence officials have told President Obama in a letter that the charge against the Syrian government is based on bad intelligence.
They said the gas attack in Syria was a “pre-planned provocation by the Syrian opposition.
