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Volume 40, Issue 12
April 8, 2003
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April 8, 2003
Differing opinions fuel rhetoric
of war
By Danny Alcocer
Mesa Legend
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PHOTOS BY DAN SMITH /MESA LEGEND
Anti-war activists Daniel Billotte
and Jessica Nelson square off with supporters of Iraqi war Stan
Chapmen and Josh Boykin (above) at a protest shortly following the
start of the war. The action took place at the intersection of Mill
Avenue and University Drive in Tempe.
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War is on the minds of everyone in the world, and MCC is no different.
All it takes is a brief walk through the Kirk Center or the cafeteria
to hear the discussion of war.
MCC students and professors are as much divided as the rest of the world
on whether or not the United States should be at war with Iraq.
“The only thing worse than crazy people, is crazy people with V.X.
gas,” said MCC freshman Travis Colvin, holding strong anti-Hussein
feelings.
Addressing the topic of Iraqi troops dressed as civilians, Colvin said,
“This is nothing new, German farmers shot at U.S. planes in World
War II, our troops have to do what they have to do in order to stay alive.”
Robert Eagle, a 22 year old student, shared similar thoughts saying, “No
action in war is dishonorable, it is war and anything goes because whoever
wins gets to decide on what war crimes the loser committed.”
Adding to the discussion was Andrew Hillman, a sophomore who said, “Civilians
fighting is a tactic of war, I’m not for civilians fighting, but
obviously Iraq is at the disadvantage right now and is trying to do whatever
it can in an attempt to win this war.”
Some students are standing firmly against the war, like sophomore Justin
Mack who said, “How many more times will we destroy things in order
to rebuild them.”
Many people across the nation question Bush’s motives and share Mack’s
opinion, who also said, “the only reason we are in Iraq is because
of the mass quantities of oil, if there wasn’t a lot of oil over
there the U.S. would not be concerned with Iraqi freedom.”
Some oppose the war but see futility in anti-war sentiment since the conflict
has already begun, such as sophomore Charles Hopkins who said “I
am against the war, but what I think doesn’t matter since we are
already in war, so I just hope they do things right this time so we don’t
have to go back to the Middle East.”
Students aren’t the only ones with thoughts on the war.
Political science teacher Brian Dille offered his insights, “I was
against the war until the U.N. security council unanimously agreed to
give Saddam Hussein one last chance to disarm, once he didn’t disarm
I supported the war talk because if we don’t do anything then it
seems like we are appeasing, so you could call me a reluctant supporter.”
Dille discussed his stance on civilian warfare and how prisoners of war
should be dealt with, “It is discouraging when civilians do die,
you never want to see that.
But as far as criticism on how we treat our prisoners, the U.S. sets the
standards that everyone else follows and no one is more careful than we
are when it comes to war, we are the only country who sends lawyers with
our troops to ensure that things are done properly.”
Dille also spoke about media coverage of the war stating, “I think
it’s important for people to take a media diet because reporters
want to report every little rumor and sometimes they are wrong.”
Evaluating a conflict taking place on the other side of the world can
be difficult and Dille offered his three step process to being educated
about the war, “First I read as much print media as possible, next
I listen to news radio such as NPR 91.5, then I browse websites, such
as cdi.org (center for
defense information), globalsecurity.org,
and stratfor.com, this gives me
a good overview of what’s going on and lets me know all the facts,
then I can make my own observations and draw my own conclusions.”
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