Students protest U.S. strike on Syria

Cara Newlon | USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent

After President Barack Obama called for a military strike against Syria last week, protesters gathered to voice their opposition — near the White House, on the streets of New York ... and outside their dorm rooms.

"Syria is not a threat to the national security of the U.S. or its allies in the Middle East," said Elias Deeb, who organized a protest on and around Brown University's campus.

"The problems in Syria can be solved in a peaceful way and not with war."

Deeb, 30, is a native Syrian who attended Rhode Island's Johnson and Wales University to study engineering. Amid rising tension between the U.S. and Syria, Deeb organized a rally of more than 100 Providence students and workers to protest U.S. military intervention in Syria.

The students, clutching drums and signs, marched through Providence's Thayer Street and Brown University's main campus. "Blow Kisses, Not Bombs: No War on Syria," read one sign. Another featured an image of President George W. Bush next to Obama's face and stated: "The Same Big Lie."

Syria has been embroiled in a civil war since 2011, when protests challenged the dictatorial regime of Bashar Al-Assad. Al-Assad's Syrian Army has since beat back rebel groups of armed civilians and foreign jihadist volunteers. More than 100,000 Syrian citizens have been killed, and the conflict has created two million refugees — half of them children.

A U.N. report released last week indicates that the Syrian Army used chemical weapons against its own civilians on Aug. 21, killing 1,429 people, including 426 children. Obama has asked Congress for permission to respond with force.

Obama's efforts, however, have been met with opposition from war-weary Americans.

A New York Times/CBS News poll found that over three-quarters of Americans felt that the administration had been unclear about its goals in Syria, and six in 10 were concerned that a strike on Syria would lead to increased unrest in the Middle East.

For Deeb, the conflict is more personal. "All my friends and family are there in Syria," he said.

He added that he did not believe the Syrian Army had used chemical weapons.

Penn State student Stephen Sloan, 18, organized a protest of 20 students who marched through campus.

"If Assad used chemical weapons, it's hard to let that action go," said Sloan. "However, we simply can't afford to go into another war. We can't even feed the hungry in our own country, so I find it hard to accept that our government wants to use our tax money to strike Syria."

Some college students do support limited military strikes in Syria.

"A lack of action will embolden our enemies and cause them to disregard our strong rhetoric and attempts at setting limits," wrote junior Zach Ingber in the Brown Daily Herald.

"A strike on Assad's regime will not prevent the murder of more Syrians by conventional warfare but will sternly remind the world that when we draw boundaries, we stick by them."

Obama will make his case for military action to a reluctant public on national television. The House and the Senate are scheduled to vote on the measure in the coming days.

In the meantime, protestors like Deeb and Sloan will petition their representatives.

"I encourage all people to contact their representatives and tell them how they feel about this important world issue," said Sloan. "Too many people are treating this with apathy and complacency instead of wanting to be informed about the situation and being proactive."

Cara Newlon is a senior at Brown University.