BOSTON (AP) — More than 200 protesters gathered at the nation’s oldest public park Saturday as part of nationwide demonstrations opposing military strikes against the Syrian government as President Barack Obama announced he would seek congressional approval for such a move.

The group stood at the corner of the Boston Common and held up signs that said ‘‘Stay Out of Syria’’ and ‘‘Hands Off Syria.’’ At least one speaker said congressional authorization would not make an attack against Syria acceptable.

Protesters also chanted ‘‘Don’t Bomb Syria! Don’t bomb Syria! Don’t bomb Syria!’’ during breaks between speeches opposing the use of force.

Later, they marched to Secretary of State John Kerry’s home on Beacon Hill, knocked on the door and left a handwritten sign that said ‘‘Stay Out of Syria.’’

People carrying around flags with Assad's face?

Proud to do so. You suffer from McCarthyism.

But I do celebrate opposition to a war against Syria.

I wish it was like in the movies where we lob a few missiles, special forces swoop from the sky, neutralize the chemical weapons, and leave just in time in a tear jerking scene where the team leader gets mortally wounded saving all of his men...

but in reality it won't work out that way and could make things very worse.

War Crimes Court.
Our bombing and killing more innocent Syrians will not "even the score". The President's plan is absurd and completely indefensible.
And if America is so concerned about bringing war criminals to justice, why haven't we seen Bush and Cheney on the docket. Our use of depleted-uranium in Iraq has resulted in a huge jump in the percentage of children being born with birth defects, that will cause them to suffer throughout their lives. We were the aggressor nation and we did that to the people of Iraq.
Our President, the man who wants to punish Assad, has proclaimed his right to decide, which Americans should be killed, without charging them with a crime or affording them their constitutionally guaranteed right to a public trial. He should be careful about pointing fingers.

that we are standing at the bottom of a sinkhole. I think this is the lesson Obama failed to learn. He was elected to raise us up not push us under.

How can President Obama think that killing more Syrians (who have done nothing to us, no matter what side they might be on) is in any way punishing Assad?
Obviously he doesn't believe this. He is lying to us to justify another war for oil, and to remind Putin that we are number one.
Obama appears to have no regard for the lives of common people, when he argues that killing innocent, common people is a legitimate tactic, in Middle-Eastern political power struggles.
He shames himself and all Americans.
Rather than spending all our treasure capturing the last drop of oil we ought to be directing our effort toward the development of alternative energy sources and compatible technologies. By the time we wrap up the oil others will have far outpaced us in leaning to survive without it.
And our military machines will ultimately run out of oil anyway. Then where will we be sitting?

I think other countries sit this out while we are, unfortunately, the world cop.

it's not working out.

we won't see bush or cheney on the stand at Hague because the crimes they are guilty of are life in prison or death penalty crimes. you won't get the American public behind it. it'd probably start a civil war.

Its not like we haven't installed, trained, and supported equally criminal dictators in many countries around the world.
Trying to discourage evil behavior, in foreign countries or at home, is a good goal. But having that goal does not make committing evil to discourage evil, a good plan.
It may be true that we won't see Bush and Cheney held accountable for their crimes but America can never be a decent country again without cleansing itself of our recent past. We have some major soul searching to do and it needs to include dealing with more than just Bush and Cheney.
We need to recognize the arguments and the people who made the case for all the bad decisions that have gotten us to where we are today. We must examine the people and institutions that increasingly control every aspect of our lives. We need to know the cost of our actions, to see the faces of our victims, their mangled bodies, and their ruined lives. This is the process for us to become whole again.
I suspect You are right, that such a cleansing would be tough on Americans, just look at Latin Americans, who are going through this process right now. Not all of them want the crimes of the past revealed to the public but the process has been good for their societies. The same would be true here too, and we would not only survive that process but become a stronger nation as a result.

It seems so obvious. Maybe I spend too much time interacting online with people other than Americans. It skews my thinking. Makes me look at our actions outside of the red, white and blue echo chamber.

You probably do spend too much time interacting with foreigners to be easily fooled by America's jingoistic, war-mongering bull-shit.
Bad girl.
But then, you might have been able to avoid that pitfall all on your own.
Your long term relationships with foreigners is probably a chicken and egg situation.
Is your global perspective the result of foreign interaction or is the interaction the result of your open minded, and intelligent being?
Its my experience that many, outside the US, view Americans as sub-literate buffoons and therefore don't devote much energy to developing relationships with us. If they find we are informed or thoughtful they are surprised and interested in what we have to say.

And the protest organizers can't physically remove them. You're being like freepers who would focus on communists at anti-Iraq war demonstrations. There were plenty of those, but it had NO BEARING on the fact that opposing that criminal war was the right thing to do!



What, you think people with the wrong flag should be roughed up?

toting around a Russian flag though (or is it an old USSR one?).

Or you can, but doing so is wrong and misleading.

As far as I am concerned, we need to stay out of the Middle East. Period. We have no business trying to assert our will there or anywhere else for that matter. We certainly have no business being mercenaries of the Saudis or the Israelis.

I am not an imperialist Democrat. Never have been one and I am not planning to become one now. If the world's leaders cannot achieve peace without shedding more blood, it is time for new leaders.

As for the Syrians protesting the plan to bomb them, you really think you have the right to tell them who to back? You don't even know what has been unfolding in that country anymore than the rest of us Americans. Get off your high horse.

and if Assad is so horrible, that we have to bomb and kill some of his people, why hasn't our government and media made issue over horror stories from there before?
Assad has ruled in Syria since 2000 and most accounts say that things in Syria haven't changed much since his father's time. People hoped he would be a reformer, which he didn't turn out to be (what other leaders fit that profile?). He has continued his father's close relationship with the Russians (but not the Soviets), he supports Hezbollah and he installed a puppet government in Lebanon (but he did remove Syrian troops from there). Syria is an ally of Iran.
We accuse him of using Sarin gas on a neighborhood in Damascus resulting in the deaths of hundreds and affecting thousands. He denies this and himself called for UN inspectors to investigate.
That is where we stand.
Americans have done, or supported someone doing, all of the things that Assad is being accused of, often on a much larger scale.
We harbor war criminals, whom our government is legally obligated to prosecute, and we treat them with honor and respect. We give them huge retirement checks and protect them with bodyguards.
We are the only people, who ever dropped atomic weapons on other people, which distinguishes us as particularly evil in my opinion, and we used depleted-uranium in Iraq, violating nuclear non-proliferation and usage treaties we signed.
We have some house cleaning of our own to do before we insist on cleaning other's.

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican is ramping up its opposition to threatened military strikes against Syria as it draws attention to Pope Francis' plans to host a day of fasting and prayer for peace this weekend.

The Vatican has invited all ambassadors accredited to the Holy See to attend a briefing Thursday on the pope's agenda for the four-hour vigil Saturday night in St. Peter's Square, and bishops' conferences from around the world have announced plans to host local versions of the vigil as well.

Even the Vatican's often dysfunctional bureaucracy seems to be on message with the initiative, Francis' first major foray into international diplomacy since being elected in March.

The No. 2 of the Vatican's justice and peace office warned earlier this week that military action in Syria could spark a world war. The head of its office for families wrote a letter to Catholics urging parents to offer their children an "austere and minimal lunch" Saturday to participate in Francis' fast. And the cardinal in charge of the Vatican's office for Eastern rite Catholics warned in an interview with the Vatican newspaper that Christian minorities in the region would suffer the most from any military intervention.

Francis himself on Wednesday urged Catholics and non-Catholics alike to participate in Saturday's vigil, telling more than 50,000 people gathered for his weekly general audience: "Let the cry for peace rise up across the Earth!"

In recent speeches, tweets and remarks, Francis has called for a negotiated settlement in Syria but has also condemned the use of chemical weapons.

"War never again! Never again war!" he tweeted earlier this week.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/04/vatican-syria-peace-vigil_n_3864827.html?ir=Religion




The pope also tweeted yesterday:

@Pontifex
Pope Francis
All men and women of good will are bound by the task of pursuing peace. #prayforpeace

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/06/pope-francis-tweets-for-peace_n_3880496.html?utm_hp_ref=religion

so you will feel "your" side has equal time.

I am not taking sides in Syria's civil war.

Who would have thought we would have to do this again after working so hard to get rid of the warmongers on the Right.

They are from the mainstream, the left, the right. The world. There is zero support for this humanitarian bombing raid.

Cant wait for the next few hundred kids to chemically asphyxiate.

How liberating....

Clearly Assad apologists.

its tough to get blood off his hands.

Please post me some links that are older than two weeks. Maybe a year ago. Ones you posted alerting us on DU about this grave need to go bomb someone no one even had on their radar a month ago.

I responded. I'm not sure if you're defending them or what your deal is.

Do you have a different explanation of what is happening in #1?

You said: "I have posted NO pictures celebrating ANY fucking warmongers!"

This is incorrect.

to plead with the US to stay out of their country. I have no idea and neither probably do you.

And as for me being an apologist. Yes, I am afraid I am. I find myself apologizing to the poor. To minorities. To Trayvon Martin's mother. To foreigners. To other progressives.

However you can be quite sure I do not intend to apologize to banksters or politicians who wage proxy petrolwars. Who tell me if I knew what they knew I would want to go to war. Screw that. They can just tell me instead of using lies and deception. I did not stay quiet going into Afghanistan and Iraq and I sure as hell won't be silent this time. I refuse. 100% refuse.

Not one sign or person in post # 1 can be identified as promoting war.
Why would you suggest such a thing?

They are marching around with pictures of him. This isn't very complicated.

they are Syrians and Syrian-Americans appealing to our government not to bomb their country or their relatives.
Americans are familiar enough with having no good choice, between the government and the government's opposition, to figure out why anti-war Syrians would be against our proposal to help out foreign rebels in their country. They are sick of death, they don't want any more friends and relatives to die so America can maintain its place on the top.
We have not been good stewards of our own country, much less the world. Everyone is sick of us. Bush did this to our reputation but Obama has not made it any better. We have made ourselves look so bad that Russia looks good.
Don't condemn people, who just want us to leave them alone. It is not our business to decide who they should support in their own country. And it is not our business to support foreign rebels, in Syria, trying to disrupt and topple the seated government.

I am willing to acknowledge that most DUers have a smattering more info than the average American. But that is all I am willing to grant. To insist that you are more than a two-week "instant" expert on Syrian affairs means putting up the evidence. A link to one or two posts six months or older warning DU about the severity of the situation in Syria would be fine. I read DU daily. Haven't seen many posts like that from the DU "experts."

I have read thousands of posts about the folly of our Middle East strategy and our ulterior motives for bombing people. This isn't my first rodeo. Tritsofme isn't going to shame me out of speaking my mind.

And I applaud you Iemitsu for your stance. We need more progressive voices like yours.

My stance is only heroic in the sense that it has remained unchanged through decades of criticism by pro-war Americans.
Deja vu. This is not the first time I have been through this.
Hindsight is wonderful, isn't it? I have been right, in opposing war, every time American war drums sound. I'm an old man, and in my lifetime my country has sponsored perpetual war. We have not won these wars, they did not improve our lives or increase our safety, they did not make things better in the countries where they were fought.
They robbed us of our livelihoods and our security.
I have been right, as has every anti-war activist who ever held a sign or marched in protest against our involvement in another war, to argue that war was not the answer.
But we are Cassandras, our voices drowned out by the thunder of war-hawks.

Qatari reports .... support Assad?

Please... there are radicals at protests all the time. The organizers can't physically assault and remove them. Don't be a silly McCarthyite.

They want everyone to drink the Kool Aid of Kerry et al

I think the pro-war hysteria is pretty gassy and noxious myself.

It's like a history book I read about the start of WW 1.

Bands playing, crowds braying, flags waving, as the youth of a dozen countries marched off to the slaughter.

across the political spectrum AND the globe.

We are increasingly isolating ourselves from the world and are unable to accept that we are just plain wrong as was proven already with Iraq.

Who the fuck came up with that mentality???

our allies, we are will definitely be isolating ourselves from the rest of the world.

I am opposed to the 'war is the answer' mentality. As I was back in 2003 when it turned out we were right.

3 significant words! Maybe people should listen and remember. This is not a battle between rival lower primates with overdeveloped reptilian brainstems. We need to evolve.

When you burn your finger on a hot stove once, you ought to exercise caution the next time the stove is turned on.

Almost no one, globally, is acting as if the plan is a good idea, yet that rare beast can be found in abundance on DU.
Weird.

Let me see if I can find it again.

In her stressed and no doubt constant struggle with minimum wage, no single payer health insurance, inadequate investment in her education, viol;ence against women...she took the time to say no to hurting other people. I applaud her.

Like calling Washington DC? Speaking to friends and neighbors? Listening to the views of people whose voices I respect? Applauding those who voice their opposition to a continuation of Bush's neo-con agenda?

If that's what you mean, then yes, I have been busy. Just like before. And I haven't silenced my own conscience like some have.

...

I will be leaving shortly to go to a protest in Minneapolis this afternoon.

to stopping the madness.

Please post a pic on this thread when you get back!!