HOUSTON (AP)
-- Protesters around the world took to the streets to protest Saturday
for and against a possible U.S.-led attack on Syria, as President Barack
Obama announced he would seek congressional approval for such a move.
Obama
said the U.S. should take action against Syria to punish it for what
the U.S. believes was a deadly chemical attack launched by Syrian
President Bashar Assad this month that killed more than 1,400 people.
But Obama said he wants Congress to debate and vote on whether to use
force, and has said any possible strike would be limited.
In
Houston, which has a large Syrian-American population, about 100 people
lined up on opposite sides of a street in an upscale neighborhood to
express opposing views on a possible U.S. attack.
"We
want any kind of action. The world has stood silently and it's been too
long. Something needs to be done," said Tamer Barazi, a 23-year-old
civil engineer who carried a Syrian flag and a sign stating "Syrian
Americans for peace, democracy and freedom in Syria."
Standing
across the street in Houston's sweltering heat were those opposing U.S.
intervention, outnumbering the supporters of an intervention. Some
carried signs stating "We Don't Want Obama's War" and "Hands Off Syria."
"How
would you like another country to decide who is going to be the
president of the United States?" asked 53-year-old Hisam Saker, a
Syrian-American property manager who has lived in Houston for 33 years.
The demonstrations erupted on both East and West coasts of the United States, and cities in between.
In
Washington, as Obama addressed the nation from the Rose Garden,
anti-war demonstrators chanted and waved placards outside the White
House. Across the street, Syrians and Syrian Americans who support U.S.
action waved flags from their country and shouted for Assad's ouster.
"The
conflict's been going on for, what, almost 2 years now. Estimates are
100,000 Syrian civilians have been killed and all of a sudden the U.S.
government has manufactured the excuse of the use of chemical weapons in
Syria to use that excuse to intervene in Syria," said Tristan Brosnan,
25, of Washington.
Later, in Los Angeles,
about 200 people shouting "Hands off Syria" protested against a possible
American strike. They waved signs reading "No More War" and police said
they wrote up more than 40 citations after demonstrators sat in street
intersections and blocked traffic. Police reported two arrests.
In
Boston, more than 200 protesters demonstrated in the Boston Commons
against the possible use of American force. They chanted "Don't Bomb
Syria!" repeatedly, and at least one speaker said congressional
authorization wouldn't make an attack acceptable.
More
than two dozen protesters gathered at the Arkansas Capitol to oppose a
possible U.S. attack. Some wore T-shirts proclaiming "NO U.S.
INTERVENTION IN SYRIA."
"I had friends that
died in Iraq, and I don't want more people to die for nothing," said
Dominic Box, 23, expressing some of the fears of a war-weary public.
In
downtown Chicago, about 40 people walked quietly in the rain, circling a
sculpture in Daley Plaza. Some carried signs that read "No War In
Syria" and "Shut It Down."
"I don't believe in
spreading democracy the way they're doing it," said Tyke Conrady, 44,
who attended the protest with three friends.
In
London, more than 1,000 protesters carrying Syrian flags and placards
marched to Downing Street and rallied in Trafalgar Square. Some hailed
the parliament's vote Thursday against British participation as a
victory.
And about 700 people turned out for
an anti-war demonstration in Frankfurt, Germany, police said. Organizers
said only a "sovereign, independent Syria free of foreign interference"
would make it possible for the Syrian people to shape the country's
future.
At a protest organized by left-wing
opposition parties in Amman, Jordan, Kawthar Arrar described any
military intervention as "an aggression on the whole Arab world." The
protesters gathered outside the U.S. embassy, chanting slogans and
setting fire to American and Israeli flags.
---
Associated
Press writers Steve LeBlanc and Rodrique Ngowi in Boston, Daisy Nguyen
in Los Angeles, Jeannie Nuss in Little Rock, Ark., Sara Burnett in
Chicago, Geir Moulson in Frankfurt, Germany, Sylvia Hui in London and
Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
---
Follow Juan Lozano on Twitter at https://twitter.com/juanlozano70 , and Ramit Plushnick-Masti at https://twitter.com/RamitMastiAP .
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