From Staff Reports
NASHVILLE, TN — Protesting the bombing of Syria last weekend, demonstrators at Davidson County’s courthouse prefer federal spending on domestic issues and challenge President Trump’s rational for missile strikes.
“The United States needs to stop its imperialist goals and just try to take care of its problems at home,” said Ronda Shelton, a 34-year-old U.S. military veteran who was posted in Texas and Oman, a kingdom on the Arabian Peninsula.
About 25 protestors demonstrated Sunday, April 15, against bombings April 13. Three chemical weapons facilities in Syria were hit by American, British and French missiles “in retaliation for a suspected poison gas attack in Douma on April 7,” Reuters reported. Nashville protestors chanted, marched and held signs to say, “No war on Syria, because missile strikes are an act of war,” said Nick McKenzie of Nashville who helped organize the rally by ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), a coalition of activist groups.
“The claim is that chemical weapons were used,” McKenzie said, “but there’s no proof to support that…”
Reuters reports France, the U.S. and Britain want the U.N. Security Council to establish an “independent inquiry into who is to responsible for chemical weapons attacks in Syria.”
President Trump’s reason for bombing is challenged by protestors who cite George Bush’s justification for war in Iraq; weapons of mass destruction.
Protestors want others to know they challenged Trump’s reason for bombing Syria, McKenzie said. Then, in the future, they may say, “We told you so,” he said.
Protestors’ signs said: “U.S. Out of the Middle East” and “Not 1 Dollar More for Endless War.”
“They keep telling us that [a poison gas attack] happened but they don’t offer any proof,” Shelton said. “It’s like the weapons of mass destruction” before the second Gulf war.
“We have so many problems in our country,” she said. “That’s the last thing we should be doing.” American problems include “people of color being gunned down by police, unfair pay for women, and poor treatment of LBGT people, to name just a few.
“So how dare we tell another country what to do? We don’t want a war against Syria,” Shelton said.
She and McKenzie said Facebook was used to get people to protest.
“We organized this … Friday night,” McKenzie said Saturday when announcing the demonstration to news media. “There will be speakers from [ANSWER] and we’ve extended an offer to the Democratic Socialists of America. Shelton said protestors’ age ranged “from children to people in their 60s.”
