Anti-War Protest in Westwood

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com




Yesterday, I was up in Los Angeles attending my 50th high school reunion. In between events, I was driving down Wilshire Blvd killing time at about 4:30. Passing the Federal Building on Wilshire Blvd, there was a big anti-war (Syria) demonstration going on. Several hundred people were in front of the Federal Building with posters and banners against military action in Syria. Naturally, I found a parking place and wandered over to take a few pictures.

It was the usual crowd, Arabs, 60s type leftists, communists (really!), LA Jews for Peace, someone from the (Communist) National Lawyers Guild, and even Native Americans dressed in loincloths and war paint-protesting for peace!

I would judge that there were a variety of opinions/reasons expressed for opposing the war. Note one poster that read, "Stop Wahhabism in Syria". There was one that accused Obama of supporting Al Qaeda.

Some Arabs were wearing t-shirts that read, "Arab-Americans for Syria". There was a multitude of Syrian flags including one with Bashar Assad's image on it. Others read, "Hands off Syria" or "No war on Syria".

I would thus conclude that a fair amount of the Arabs present were supporters of the Assad regime.

Someone handed me a flyer from the Revolutionary Communist Party USA, which assigned all kinds of dastardly reasons for the US to attack Syria. The text can be read at the below link:

http://revcom.us/a/315/only-worse-suffering-and-horror-can-result-from-US-attack-on-Syria-en.html

At some point, several dozen of the protesters broke off and marched up Wilshire Blvd before turning into Westwood Village followed by LAPD, who blocked traffic for their procession.

Having seen enough, I soon became bored and decided it was time to find a friendly pub in the Village to while away the time before my reunion dinner.