Residents protest attack on Syria

Bloomington peace groups gathered at the Monroe County Courthouse Square on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks to protest a U.S. attack on Syria.

The event included speeches from Father John Meany of St. Paul Catholic Center and David Keppel of the Bloomington Peace Action Coalition, among others.

Keppel said they organized the event to remember the tragedy on Sept. 11, 2001, to remember those killed both in Afghanistan and Iraq and to oppose a U.S. attack on Syria.

“This is a long-term struggle to make peace, and we are not going to stop until we accomplish it,” he said.

Keppel said people from any political background understand that war is counterproductive.

“We should direct the money that would have gone to war instead to refugees who are in terrible streets and to the even greater number of eternally displaced persons in Syria,” he said.

Protestors held signs that read “No more dead Hoosiers in Iraq or Iran” and “Money for jobs not for war.”

“The world has changed enormously, and I think that out of that experience for all those years, like most Americans, we can see really the horrors of war and the utility of it and how really the only way to settle things is peacefully,” Father Meany said in his speech. “We gather here to honor the dead but to also forcefully say to our leadership, ‘enough is enough.’”

Follow reporter Alli Friedman on Twitter @afreedz.