Ed Asner says Hollywood celebs won’t criticize the President, fear of being called a ‘racist’

Liberals in Hollywood are not speaking out against President Barack Obama’s call for military strikes against the Syrian government because they fear being called racists, veteran actor Ed Asner says.

photo Josh Janssen via Flickr

“A lot of people don’t want to feel anti-black by being opposed to Obama,” Asner told The Hollywood Reporter.

Asner and fellow liberal activist Mike Farrell, of “M*A*S*H” fame are speaking out against the silence from Hollywood, drawing comparisons to the protests of the Iraq War under George W. Bush.

“What he is talking about in Syria is a potential war crime,” Farrell said. “It will be illegal, and if citizens are killed it certainly could be considered a war crime.”

Even if Obama presents irrefutable evidence that Syrian PresidentBashar al-Assad used poison gas against civilians, military action is still unwarranted, the two activists say.

“This administration ought to insist that the international community charge [Assad] with a war crime and prosecute him, and in so doing Obama would be following the law instead of flaunting the law,” Farrell said.

“It’s incredibly improper for the president to call for a strike. I have said it everywhere I can and I suspect a lot of others will do the same, but whether there will be an organized effort, I don’t know,” Farrell continued. “We’re talking about the difference between an invasion in Iraq and a limited action in response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria.”

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