Speaking out at Representative Emanuel Cleaver’s (D) town hall on military intervention in Syria – Kansas City – September 5, 2013.

On Thursday evening in Kansas City Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) held an open town hall on military intervention in Syria. After brief introductory remarks Congressman Cleaver opened up the microphone to anyone who wanted to speak on the subject. People did so, one after another, for almost two hours.

….Thank you for being here. Um, I came out tonight and much of my significant concerns about moving forward with a military strike against Syria at this time have been spoken to by my fellow constituents.

The thing that I’d like to add, and I apologize if I missed this earlier, uh, western intervention has a very long history in this region of the world as it does in many regions of the world. And I think that this strike will no doubt fit into that historical context. And those interventions have often been oppressive, unwelcome, hegemonic. And I don’t agree with that and I don’t think that’s what we preach here in the United States, although it happens all of the time, all over the world by our [inaudible], by our government. And so I just ask you to think very critically about what this means and how it fits into a much larger global picture. Thank you. [applause]

Previously:

Suppose they gave a town hall before rushing off to war and everybody came (September 5, 2013)

Norman Rockwell ain’t got nothin’ on the real Kansas City (September 5, 2013)

Norman Rockwell ain’t got nothin’ on the real Kansas City – part 2 (September 6, 2013)

A short interview with Rep. Cleaver after last night’s town hall (September 6, 2013)

Norman Rockwell ain’t got nothin’ on the real Kansas City – part 3 (September 7, 2013)