El Paso residents protest United States intervention in Syria
About two dozen El Paso residents gathered in San Jacinto plaza on Sunday to protest the United States intervention in Syria with military air strikes.
“If they don’t want their president, that should be up to them,” said Rebecca Hampton, an organizer of the protest. “The United States has no reason to go and bomb their country and commit violence.”
The United States, the United Kingdom and France launched air strikes Saturday morning after allegations that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has used chemical weapons on civilians.
“The combined American, British and French response to these atrocities will integrate all instruments of our national power: military, economic and diplomatic,” President Donald Trump said in his address Friday night.
“This should be a decision of the United Nations” said James Hinde, an El Paso protester. “Not a particular country. Then, the United States can be at the service of the international community, not of its own caprice.”
Maria Salazar, an El Paso mother and educator, said military action is endangering the innocent children caught in the conflict.
“Millions of Syrians have died to this day, many of them children” Salazar said. “I am a mother and that affects me greatly. The war needs to stop.”
Nikki Haley, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, said Trump’s administration is “locked and loaded” to perform more air strikes in Syria, if needed.
