Swedes protest US plans for war on Syria amid Obama visit

Thousands of protesters have held a demonstration in Sweden’s capital to protest against the US’s warmongering policies vis-à-vis Syria as zionist US President Barack Obama arrived in the European country.

Angry demonstrators took to the streets of Stockholm on Wednesday to express opposition to calls by the Obama administration for a military strike on Syria.

The protesters carried banners that read, “No to Big Brother Obama,” “No to war on Syria,” and “Hands off Snowden,” in a reference to American whistleblower Edward Snowden, who leaked two top secret spying programs run by the US government.

“Send Obama away. We don’t want Obama to come to Sweden because we see him as a war criminal,” a protester said.

The US president traveled to Sweden to discuss issues related to economy, employment, free trade, climate and energy.

However, the demonstrators in Stockholm said Obama is trying to convince the Swedish government to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and support the US attack on Syria.

“No negotiation about Sweden being a member of NATO, because I think that’s on the agenda today, that Obama wants Sweden to be [a] NATO member and we’re opposing all of that,” another protester stated.

The rhetoric of war against Syria first gained momentum on August 21, when the militants operating inside the country and the foreign-backed Syrian opposition claimed that over a thousand people had been killed in a government chemical attack on militant strongholds on the outskirts of Damascus.

The Syrian government categorically rejected the accusation and said the militants had conducted the attack to draw in foreign military intervention.

Nevertheless, a number of Western countries, including the US, France, and the UK, quickly started campaigning for war.

The talk of war reached a peak on Tuesday, August 27, when media outlets reported US plans for likely surgical attacks.

Later, however, domestic and international calls against a potential war forced some of the warmongering countries to temporarily tone down their stances.

On August 29, the British parliament voted against participation by Britain in any potential military intervention in Syria under the current circumstances. On Friday, August 30, NATO also distanced itself from participating in any military intervention in Syria.

However, Washington remained defiant, saying that it is willing to go ahead with its plans for a strike on Syria without the approval of the United Nations or even the support of its allies. Under mounting pressure though, President Obama said on August 31 that his administration will first seek authorization from the Congress.

Although the American legislators were highly skeptical of any US war on Syria at first, criticizing the draft resolution that had been sent to them by the Obama administration, they now seem on their way to approving White House plans for a war.

The US lawmakers drafted a bipartisan measure on September 4 – to be voted on in the two chambers of the US Congress later – imposing a 90-day deadline for US military intervention, but banning the “deployment of any US troops on the ground” in Syria.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has said it also plans to use “Air Force bombers” in addition to destroyers armed with cruise missiles, which were the primary means of launching an attack on Syria.

All of this comes while the team of UN inspectors, who recently visited Syria to probe the sites of chemical attacks, has yet to release the findings of its inspection.

The UN, Iran, Russia, and China have warned against war.