“Support our troops.”
“Say no to war.”
“God Bless America.”
“Stop Bush!”
“Saddam must be stopped!”
“Peace!”
“War!”

These are just a few of the phrases that can be seen and heard from just about anywhere, particularly across the nation’s college campus’ where these “slogans” are plastered in profiles, on pamphlets, and even, chalked onto walls. This has been going on even before we made our second declaration of war on Iraq. At 8 p.m. EST on Wednesday, March 19, we began bombing Iraq. At the time, I was actually sitting in my friend’s apartment talking about both the news and different news sources as part of a focus group for one of her communications courses. We were in the midst of talking about whether people should/would use the Internet on their cell phones to check the news when one of the other girls in the group said, “Oh, look, it’s 8 o’clock; we’re officially at war.”

I don’t know if I really ever believed that we would go to war with Iraq. I don’t know if I agree with the war entirely either. I know that I support our troops and I don’t want a repeat of Vietnam, where by the end almost everyone was against the war and the government ignored the Veterans of Foreign Wars when they came back. I know that some people agree with the war; one of my friends even has her AOL instant messenger profile dedicated to her love of the U.S. At the bottom it reads, “I support our troops. I’m anti-protest.” I also know some people who don’t agree with the war. I have friends who started protesting the day after bombing began. Recently, a woman who had protested the Vietnam War and the ROTC program during the late 60s and early 70s came to speak to my history class. Listening to her I felt like my generation didn’t do nearly as much as hers had done in the way of supporting their beliefs. Then I saw the protests, the profiles, and heard my friends and peers speak out about their feelings about the war and what was going on in our country, and realized even if we don’t all feel the same way about the war and what’s going on, we’re not nearly as ignorant as I felt we were.

Because I am not sure of my own exact feelings about the war, and I feel that all opinions should be heard and expressed, I decided to share with you some of the opinions of the college students I know.

“The United States has rushed into conflict and ignored the path of diplomacy. Odds are as a way to move attention away from poor domestic policy, aka the economy, and towards something more appealing to the masses, ‘War on Terror.’ Despite the fact that Syria is a much bigger threat, as is North Korea, Saddam is an easy target since the first war with them. Plus there are fewer ties with international relations in regard to Iraq, unlike say North Korea. However, now that conflict has been engaged, the U.S. has to see it through until the end, that way loose ties won't be left behind, aka the first war with them.”—Andre Fontanella, Stevens Institute of Technology, 2005

“I can't say that I really agree/disagree with the war because the reasons why we are fighting are extremely vague to me. Although the president and others say that we are fighting to liberate Iraq, I just can't help to think that there are ulterior motives to this war. However, I do support our troops who are putting everything on the line and pray that they get back to their families safely.”—Erin Long, Boston University, 2003

“I have mixed opinions on the war in Iraq. I'm actually a bit disappointed in the way Germany and France are handling the issue and the fact that they completely refuse to back us up. It is especially disappointing that Germany, who basically was the major starter of World War I and II, has now taken a completely anti-war attitude because of the consequences of their actions and the fact that they really want to separate themselves from their dark history. I lived there for a year, and they were constantly pointing out that guns in our country were wrong and would always ask me what was wrong with my country during the school shootings. (Never mind the fact that they had a school shooting there in Erfurt a year later.) And then there’s France, who was so quick to lay down arms during World War II. And the fact is we helped rebuild their countries after the war. So I often think the least they can do is show us some support. Now, also, after World War I, the U.S. went through a period of isolation, which I'm guessing France and especially Germany are going through now, where we didn't want to get involved in worldly issues. Sort of as a result, someone like Hitler was allowed to rise to power. People often give us shit about being the ‘policemen of the world’ but if nobody does it, we see some pretty negative consequences. I don't know exactly what's going on inside Iraq with Saddam. All I know is what we hear on the news, which is our government's form of propaganda to get us to be against him. What's scary, though, is if it's all true. Like the way he tortures his people and so forth. If we just sit idly by and wait, we may have a big problem down the line.”—Anonymous, Boston University, 2004

“I think the majority of people fail to see that the issue of Iraq's disarmament has been going on for 12 years—and for those 12 years, Hussein has disregarded the United Nations, which leads me to believe that the United Nations has grown weak in the years. And Bush is right. The United Nations was formed in 1945, at the conclusion of World War II and the demise of Hitler's regime, to establish international security, thus, protect the world from oppressive regimes. And they have failed for the past 12 years. Beginning with Sept. 11, the international world entered a new form of warfare. Hindsight is 20/20 when we can see in war the elaborate goal and can easily answer what we are fighting for. But now, there are no declarations of war, no easily identifiable enemy. For the sake of our own security (which we saw is not impenetrable), we need to be pre-emptive because there are lots of people who hate us and can hop on a plane and knock out some skyscrapers. And Saddam is one of them. I'm by no means pro-war. But I do believe this was our last resort, that we were left with no other choice. Of course, I'd rather see peace in the world, but if the means to that end is war, then I guess I'll take it. I trust the Bush administration and I support our troops because that is the duty of an American citizen—just as protesting the war—but can those people really offer another alternative to find the peace they chant for?”—Mary Dickson, Boston University, 2004

“Saddam Hussein has violated continually the United Nations resolutions passed on him for the past 12 years. In violation of these resolutions, Saddam developed and then attempted to conceal weapons of mass destruction and biological and chemical weapons from the international community. Saddam poses a threat to the people of his country, whom he has tested his chemical weapons against before, and the greater world community. Under Saddam, over 200,000 political dissidents have gone “missing,” clearly he is a threat to his own community. (Professor Jenny White, Turkish Expert & Anthropologist) With his illegal weapons Saddam could attack our close ally and the only democracy in the Middle East—Israel. (However, I myself do not support Israel but that’s just a side note, it’s neither here nor there.) These are just a few of the reasons I support the war. My roommate saw a movie for one of her classes saying that Clinton wanted to take out Saddam the whole time he was president, however he didn’t want to because there was not enough support for it in the country. Currently 68 percent of the United States believes we were justified in attacking Iraq. (New York Times) In general I think that the reason Bush has decided to go to war is greatly influenced by Sept. 11. I would like to think it’s not because he’s afraid of the ‘Arab Horde/ Fundamentalist Islamic Threat.’ (I have some strong opinions about this ‘Islamic Threat’—It’s bullshit.) Rather I think that it’s because he’s seen what a rogue group, like bin Ladin’s, can do and how it can affect the American people. After Sept. 11 information came out that many high-ranking government officials probably could have prevented the tragedy. I think Bush’s advisors told him that Saddam, has the ability to, and probably would do something of the same nature, or cause something of the same sort to happen. Imagine the backlash against Bush and his administration were Saddam to do something and it later to come out that our president and his closest advisors knew about the threat and left the U.S. people to be harmed. These are the reasons I think that going to war with Iraq is not only justified, but necessary. As for the rest of the pansies in the world…like the French, they can kiss our ass for saving them later….just like we did in World War II.”—Claire Rodriguez, Boston University, 2005

“We put Saddam in before, so now it's our responsibility to take him out.”—Frank, Lehigh University, 2005
“If you really want my opinion, I think that dealing with Saddam finally is a good thing. This should have been settled a decade ago, before all the anti-war sentiment. A decade ago we had all the backing we could want, and now we barely have any.”—Jasminia Nuesa, Lehigh University, 2005

“I think it has to be done. I think 10 years of sanctions were a bad way to deal with Saddam Hussein because we know what that does to the civilian population. The United Nations should have taken action in ‘98 when he kicked out the inspectors. I’m not at all sure it's going to be an easy job and I’m not sure it'll be easy to stabilize it. But both for the Iraqi people and for the threat to the world, I think not doing anything is a scarier choice.”—Nir Harish, Yale University, 2005

“I think, basically, it was necessary to do something about Saddam, since it's clear he has weapons he shouldn't have, and I think that the United States feels very strongly that they have/are going to use them against U.S. interests. However, I really think he needs to take a few classes in diplomacy.”—Josh Hamberger, Cornell University, 2004

I hope this gave you some clue as to how a lot of the college generation feels about the War. I think we all are affected by it, and we all think about it in different ways, but it’s good that we are all thinking about it. It says a lot about us.