There have been 1,981 American soldiers killed in Iraq. Over 14,000 wounded. Over 138,000 members of the armed services deployed to Saddam Hussein’s old stomping grounds. The decision to invade Iraq was one of the most controversial foreign policy decisions in U.S. history, but here at Georgetown, a campus of high political involvement, attention has flagged from the high point of the pre-war debate. Students and observers point to the apparent futility of student action, the numerous other priorities battling for their attention and the lack of engagement among the American people. But some students are still directly involved-those who are going to Iraq and those who know service members already there. Facing a failure of civic engagement, who’s got Iraq on their mind today?
People are still protesting, right?
On Sept. 24, tens of thousands of protestors marched past the White House demanding a mass troop withdrawal in the largest anti-war protest of the year. The protest featured Cindy Sheehan, the closest person the disorganized anti-war movement has to a leader, who has dogged President Bush’s heels with hard questions about the war after her son, a soldier in Iraq, was killed in 2004. But Georgetown students didn’t make their presence felt in their own backyard.
“We felt the primary message at the protests was not something we wanted to sign on to,” Peter Solecki (CAS ‘07), chairman of the Georgetown University College Democrats, said. The GUCD is one of the campus’ few organized critics of the war. “There was no consensus among the board members about what to do about the protests … we understand now that to bring the troops home now could be a disaster.”
The pro-war Georgetown University College Republicans’ position is surprisingly close to that of their rivals at GUCD.
“The problem with the anti-war movement that we’ve seen thus far is that it is a disorganized and extreme movement that fails to focus solely on the Iraq War,” Jay Ennis (SFS ‘07), chair of GUCR, said. “The protestors last week presented a lot of ideas and bashed the President on a variety of issues. They need to focus on Iraq. They’re going to fail to be heard.”
GU Peace Action, a general peace and justice group founded in 2002, has been involved with anti-war activities since 2003, though their efforts have tapered. They sent a dozen students to the march, but even their members questioned the efficacy of the march’s bandwagoning effect, according to Peace Action member Farrah Farley (SFS ‘06). She noted that many students have refocused on other issues.
“A lot of people supporting the anti-war movement might say, ‘we’re already there and there’s not much we can do to improve the situation,’” Farley said. “I don’t prioritize one humanitarian crisis over another, [but] activists prioritize where their efforts are that day, that month.”
Both GUCR and GUCD have been involved with campus debates about the war in Iraq, and GUCR is planning a fundraiser to send amenities to servicemen and women overseas. GUCR also sent a contingent to the pro-war “Support the Troops” counter-demonstration at the Sept. 24 march.
While the latest polls from Pew and CBS/Wall Street Journal say that 50 percent of Americans now think that going to war was the wrong decision, and 51 percent say the war is not worth the human and material cost, no politician on either side of the aisle has offered a clear solution beyond maintaining a level of security until the fledgling Iraqi government can take over. Even after recent constitutional and parliamentary elections, we do not have a clear deadline for troop withdrawal, nor is there a clear way to find one.
The difficulty in political direct action-on either side-stems at least partially from its apparent inefectuality and the complexity of the policies involved.
“I don’t feel that we’re the ones to do things. Even after working for my senator, it’s futile. It’s become a joke, and that’s the saddest thing,” Katherine Ward (SFS ‘07), whose brother is stationed in Iraq, said. Ward is “vehemently” opposed to the war.
Despite national political tensions over whether or not being anti-war is un-patriotic, the people we interviewed were mostly respectful of alternate opinions; whether out of politeness or real belief, few insults were thrown around. Still, the challenge of being against a war and still remaining loyal to your country was a constant subtext.
“I’m not anti-military, not anti-American, I’m very much the opposite,” Ward said.
Dean Emeritus Peter F. Krogh, who has been at Georgetown since he became the Dean of the School of Foreign Service in 1969, said that students today lack the energy of the students whose protests marked his early years here.
“I would be hot under the collar about it,” Krogh said. “I would say, ‘In your face, I’m just as patriotic as you and I think an early withdrawal would greatly strengthen our country … that’s what patriotism is!’”
“I think the anti-war movement and the criticism that appears in the media is largely about policy, and people are going to have policy disagreements,” Darren Withers (MSB ‘07), a ROTC Platoon Sergeant, said. “I don’t take offense at that, but I do take offense at anyone who goes after the troops.”
HOYAS over there (or on the way)
Some of the troops come straight from Georgetown. The University has a strong ROTC program that, even with the slow down in recruitment from the boom year following 9/11, consistently beats its quotas to commission 20 to 30 Second Lieutenants in the U.S. Army each year. Eighty percent of the current graduating class will be deployed to Iraq in the next two years, according to Major Marty Klein, head of recruitment and enrollment at ROTC Georgetown.
“We’re forthright, and we don’t sugarcoat it,” Klein said. “We don’t address it from a political perspective-we have professors to do that.”
ROTC cadets seemed to have the same attitude about joining the armed forces.
“The Army hasn’t tried to say ‘you won’t be deployed,’” Withers said. “In the eyes of most cadets, we view it as a 100 percent chance [of being deployed.] I’m fully aware the job of the army is to fight wars. To take the oath and not accept the possibility of being deployed is silly.”
A recent ROTC graduate, Second Lieutenant Wilson St. Pierre (SFS ‘04), is currently deployed as an artillery officer in Tal Afar, Iraq. He doesn’t regret his decision to join the military.
“Progress is slow going and requires a lot of effort but is ultimately rewarding when you see positive results,” St. Pierre said. “Unfortunately, the positives often happen at the soldier level where the press either can’t see them or don’t take the time to seek them out.”
Both the cadets and active duty soldiers we spoke to acknowledge that the public no longer seems to be following the daily actions of the war-but that also doesn’t seem to bother them.
“Overall, I’m very glad that I’m [part of the military] today rather than 30, 40 years ago during the Vietnam era,” Withers said. “I’d like to think that I’d be doing this no matter what, [but] I feel that public support for the soldiers is so high, and I feel like what I’m doing is much appreciated.”
Beyond the lessons of Vietnam, some soldiers are glad that life at home remains normal.
“Personally, I don’t have a problem with the way the public is handling the current situation,” St. Pierre said. “Businesses should continue to do what they do best-business. Academia should continue to do what it does best-educate. And we will continue to do what we do best-fight and keep the peace on behalf of the nation. There is solace in knowing that my family and friends can go about their daily lives without obsessing over the events in Iraq.”
Left to wait
“I’m getting New York Times news alerts every 10 minutes,” Ward, the student whose brother is stationed in Iraq, said. “It’s a really hard job to be aware of all that’s going on … I’m like Debbie Downer sometimes.”
Ward’s free-spirited brother Nick joined the military right after high school, searching for adventure and continuing his family’s military tradition (he is related to the famous World War II General George S. Patton). Now he is a satellite communications specialist in Iraq. Ward’s parents, like her, are against the war.
“One of the most difficult things is being proud of my brother for who he is and not what he is doing,” she said.
One of Arthur Weiner’s (CAS ‘07) high school friends is a Marine serving in Iraq who enlisted to get money for college. They regularly speak via AOL Instant Messenger, and Weiner says he jokingly ends each conversation with ‘stay safe’ or ‘don’t get killed,’ only it’s not really a joke.” Weiner believes that most people have “tuned off” the war.
“It’s become more white noise in the background of other issues,” Weiner said. “The protests don’t do anything … people seem to have accepted it and been placated about it, which I think is the wrong attitude to take.”
Ward isn’t surprised by most peoples’ attitude, noting that she herself might be distant from the war if her brother was not involved.
“The anti-war movement is a joke,” Ward said. “There was a point where it made you want to go away and cry. People look at it as a project and not a war. It doesn’t feel like a war. The headlines that you read that seem so repetitive really do lead to real life decisions.”
“It doesn’t feel like a war”
In the run up to the Persian Gulf War in 1990, a national club called Aegis Justice was formed to develop a peaceful solution to then-dictator Saddam Hussein’s decision to invade Kuwait. Forty Georgetown students formed a branch on campus. A University-wide teach-in was held in December of that year. Where is that kind of action today?
During the Vietnam War, Georgetown was as tumultuous as any other college campus during the 60s. Numerous protests were held, the Student Senate (the precursor to the Georgetown University Student Association) voted to hold a strike partially in the hopes that the University would declare its opposition to the war. The University administration even allowed 650 out-of-town protestors to stay in McDonough Gymnasium.
“The 60s was its own generation,” Krogh said. “[It was] a function of demographics. There were so many young people in the baby boom; it was almost fashionable to identify with and indulge young people. That’s not happening now. It’s not the same sense of commitment among young people-they don’t vote-they work hard and get good grades.”
The Voice was formed in 1969 in protest of the Hoya’s refusal to report on national issues, including the war, and a draft dodger wrote a regular column for the paper. In an informal Voice poll taken in 1970, the war was Georgetown students’ top priority in the country. While the Iraq war has certainly not reached the level of commitment, in cash or casualties, as the Vietnam war, today’s entirely tepid response seems out of character. Is it just fatigue, or something more?
“In 2003 it was easy to hold up signs and shout, ‘Don’t go to war,’” Solecki said. “We’re at a point now where it doesn’t make sense to go back to those issues [that were debated before the war]. Now, there’s no consensus behind one point; it’s become a very complicated issue.”
“It’s a little late for anti-war protests. In a way, we all let ourselves down by not jumping on this thing right at the beginning,” Krogh said. “Here, we’re in an extraction mode. That’s difficult to imagine-very difficult to imagine-and similar to Vietnam.”
The only thing everyone seems to agree on is the need to support the troops, whether through donations, care packages or kind words. The soldiers we spoke to felt like the American people were behind them.
“As support for the war has been falling, support for the troops has been high,” Withers said.
However, the troops may not really represent the United States. Though the Pentagon maintains that its soldiers are representative of the country’s demographics, many worry that an all-volunteer force draws heavily from lower-class Americans.
“The country turned to a volunteer force [after Vietnam],” Krogh said. “People on campus [during the Vietnam war] could look to the left or the right to see a fallen comrade. Now they don’t have any comrades in this war. How do you democratize an all-volunteer force?”
Weiner put it more simply.
“None of these kids would fight unless they were drafted.”
“Two U.S. Marines killed in Western Iraq”
For now, the United States seems stuck in the status quo of Iraq. Day by day, U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians are killed in Iraq by an insurgency that, according to many reports, is growing more sophisticated. Conflicting plans for bringing the troops home sit alongside conflicting reports of the strength of the new Iraqi government. No one knows when it will be strong enough to stand on its own. Very few people know what Georgetown students can do about it.
“What I think students should do is think about what kind of foreign policy they want to live under-and serve,” Krogh said, noting that his generation supported the idea of containment during the Cold War, and that, as of yet, no alternative has emerged for this generation. “When we invaded Iraq, I just threw up my hands.”
For now, students are focused on their own concerns, and student activists are focused on domestic issues like poverty and the recent natural disasters as well as other foreign policy issues like the genocide in Sudan. If the war continues for years, as many experts believe it will, will students awaken and take more notice, if not more action? In its 1969 debut editorial, the Voice wrote “no member of Congress can afford to be indifferent to the most idealistic and energetic segment of his constituency. The stakes are too high.” Today, are we not idealistic and energetic enough? Or are the stakes not yet high enough?
