DEARBORN – Demonstrators at a rally here Thursday criticized President Barack Obama’s Administration for its involvement in the Syrian crisis. 

Speaking, Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News said, “We tell Obama, instead of spending our money and our energy to destroy Damascus, why don’t you do something about restoring Detroit from Bankruptcy? And if you have money to give to the Egyptians to kill each other, why don’t you give it to the Detroiters to stop killing each other?” 

About 200 people attended the rally that was held, in objection to President Obama’s decision to possibly launch a U.S. military attack on Syria soon if evidence is found that its government used chemical weapons on an attack that killed hundreds of people. Protestors called on the Administration to not take military action in Syria, because of the dire consequences it would have. 

Demonstrators held up signs that read, “Syria War, Obama’s Fascist takeover” and “Syria, Obama’s Bush War.”

“All we want is for children in Syria to live like children here,” Majad Nakad, who has family in Syria said. 

Abayomi Azikiwe, a member of the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice (MECAW) says there have been findings that the opposition in Syria, which the United States has been arming and supporting financially used sarin nerve gas at a point in the crisis, but the U.S. government has refused to acknowledge it. 

“We have been in Afghanistan now for almost 12 years, and what has been the result of that war? We want peace, we do not want war. Lets stand strong in defense of the people in Syria, and lets inform our government that it needs to get on the right side of history, and stop wars,”  Azikiwe said. 

David Sole, who’s also a member of MECAW says for two years the United States has been arming the rebels in Syria, which he described as terrorists. 

“Syria isn’t the only one targeted by this U.S. drive for world domination and economic gain. They don’t care about the Syrian people, they don’t even care about the people they are arming in Syria. The only thing they care about is the billions and billions of dollars in oil revenue,” Sole said.  

According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, more than 60 percent of Americans surveyed said the United States should not intervene in Syria’s civil war, while just 9 percent thought Obama should act.

“Don’t be angry, and don’t worry because it appears that most of the people in the world are on your side,” Siblani said.