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News :: Peace |
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Iraq Teach-In On SIUE Campus |
Current rating: 0 |
by Jon R. Pike
Email: profpike (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified!) |
14 Oct 2002
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Faculty and Students hold and Iraq Teach-In on Campus |
On a metro-area campus not known for its political activism, several SIU-E faculty members took the intitiative to teach outside of their individual disciplines and concentrate on educating students, staff and faculty members about the Bush administration's plans for invading Iraq.
The timing of the event could not have been more timely as it was scheduled for
the day after Bush's address to the nation on Iraq (for full-text of the speech, go here (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021007-8.html)on October 7th.
The noon-time event took full advantage of the traffic that traditionally goes across the campus' quad. About 250 students, faculty, staff and administrators took time off from their day and took advantage of the fall weather to listen to the speakers.
Students who helped organize the event passed around flyers and petitions provided by Global Exchange (globalexchange.org). Several people also carried signs at the event with messages like, 'Patience Promotes Peace', 'Pre-emptive strike + Collateral Damage = Murder' and 'Just Because We Can Doesn't Mean We Should'. Some attendees also carried stylized 'Stop' signs bearing the message, 'Stop The Violence Now.'
Sociology Department Chair, John Farley kicked off the afternoon of speakers by putting a desk top American flag on the podium. He did so, he said, to ,'Point out that true patriots do not follow their leaders blindly.' Farley said that a pre-emptive attack makes no sense on several grounds. He led off this list by saying that it was 'bad, morally and ethically' in that it would violate many internationally recognized moral principles, such as the conditions of what constitutes a just war as set out by most of the world's religions. Farley also said it set a terrible internaational precedent. He pointed out a very pertinent and recent example, 'What if India or Pkaistan would launch a pre-emptive strike based on the fact that the other has weapons of mass destrcution.' Farley also said that a pre-emptive strike makes no sense geopolitically, as it would have the potential to, 'make enemies out of friends,' as many of the US' traditional allies oppose such an action by the US. He also said that starting a war with Iraq could lead to a regionalized
war with Israel and Arab contries attacking each other in the atmosphere of conflict.
Middle-East Historian, Steve Tamari, who has traveled extensively in Syria and Lebanon, pointed out ot the audience how differently the world looks to those living in Arab countries from the US. He says the reasons given by Bush to militarily intervene in Iraq do not resonate in those countries. 'It makes no sense to say that Iraq has violated UN resolutions, when Israel has done so and often with US approval.' When the US speaks of Iraq being an agressor nation, said Tamari, that makes little sense to people in countries like Syria and Lebanon, because to them Israel is an aggressor nation about which the US does little. He said the same thing goes for Bush's rhetoric about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, when the US has shown no concern about Israel's arsenal. When the US talks about promoting democracy in Iraq, said Tamari, people in countries like Syria and Lebanon wonder why the US doesn't do say with countries with which iot has some influence, like Saudi Arabia and why it hampers the efforts of a democratically elected leader like Yassir Arafat. Tamari challenged his audience to read on-line versions of middle-eastern newspapers like Ha'Aretz (http://www.haaretzdaily.com/) or The Beirut Times (http://www.beiruttimes.com/).
Public relations professor, Laura Perkins took her time to look into the public relations aspects war with Iraq. She pointed out how the previous Bush administration hired the public relations firm of Hill and Knowlton who created what she called, 'A galvanizing event that pushed Opeartion:Desert Shield to Desert Storm.' That event, she said was the fabricated killing of Kuwaiti babies by Iraqi soldiers. She pointed out that the current Bush administration has hired a public relations staff that employs the elder Bush's chief of staff, Craig Fuller. Perkins said, with the 200-million dollars ear marked for selling an Iraqi war to America, she told her audience to look for a 'doozy' of a galvanizing event. 'If a war with Iraq is as morally necessary as the Bush administration says it is,' said Perkins,' Why do they need to spend 200-million dollarsto do it.'
The educational nature of the event was perhaps highlighted by the fact that finance professor, Ali Kutan took his class outdoors to hear the speakers. |
