Anti-American Pacifism Plagues the University of Hartford
I remember the weeks that followed September 11, 2001 while I was still a student at the University of Hartford. We knew the time was coming when the United States would retaliate against Al Qaeda… It was only a matter of time. When George W. Bush visited Ground Zero days after the horrific terrorist attacks he had said “…the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”
Then I was aware of the presence of a group on campus called the Progressive Student Alliance (PSA) who began posted up fliers in the Commons and other places stating “Don’t Become The Hate You Oppose.” Clearly referring to the United States’ plans for retaliation.
Those today that speak against the War On Terror would likely have been similarly against the United States liberating Auschwitz and other concentration camps in Europe and defeating the Nazi Regime back in the 1940’s. It is a self-defeating form of pacifism that goes against the liberties and freedoms Americans today take for granted.
The current president of PSA, John Dennehy, appears to be leading this movement of campus leftists. “I don’t think war solves problems, it creates problems. It doesn’t save people, it kills people,” he said. Apparently, he doesn’t seem to realize that sometimes there are causes great enough where military action is necessary. Did Hitler have to eradicate the entire European Jewish population before American intervention? Does Saddam Hussein have to gas more of his people, obtain weapons of mass destruction and use them before we do something about it? Or do we just let evil take its course? Franklin Delano Roosevelt had been well informed about the atrocities of the Nazis and Adolf Hitler in the 1940s, and he didn’t do anything about it because he didn’t feel it posed any political advantage for him to liberate the European Jews.
Dennehy preaches that “Violence breeds violence, and it’s just an endless cycle.” But there are no more concentrations camps. European Jews are no longer sent to gas chambers. Today, Dennehy and his anti-American pacifist group are against the liberation of country whose people have been gassed and tortured by their ruler, Saddam Hussein. In reality, lack of American intervention of the brutality of evil regimes is what truly breeds more violence.
PSA led a tasteless and disgraceful “Anti-war” march on November 20th. One of the groups tawdry acts was perpetrated by the PSA Treasurer Jesse Dionne, who dressed as George W. Bush, and a sign being held saying “Honk if you’re smarter than Bush.” These are cheap shot with no solid ground.
George W. Bush not only graduated from Yale University, but he also received his MBA at Harvard Business School. His opponent in the 2000 Presidential Election, Al Gore, flunked out of graduate school. If you’d like me to make a comparison a little more personal, Bush achieved a combined SAT score of 1206. The average SAT score of incoming first-time applicant freshmen of the University of Hartford for the 1999-2000 academic year was only 1051. Don’t forget that Bush took the SATs before the recentering of SAT scores in 1995.
Sophomore Jeff Goldstein, another marcher, claims people who support American intervention in Iraq are not fully informed: “I don’t think that most people are aware of the full situation, so people who support the war in Iraq support it because of misunderstandings,” and according to the article in the Informer, he blames the mainstream media.
Excuse me? The liberal media is responsible for Americans supporting going into Iraq? Has anyone ever seen ABC’s Peter Jennings show anything but negativity towards Bush’s Iraq Policy? Was it only a fluke when Katie Couric was encouraging Al Gore during a recent interview on NBC to speak out more against Bush’s economic and Iraq policies? The only thing the mainstream media has done regarding Bush’s policy on Iraq has been to bash it. The American people just know better than to fall for it – as we saw on Election Day.
I want peace as much if not more than John Dennehy does. He and I have disagreed in the past; in fact, he is one of a small number of people bold enough to write an article in response to an editorial I wrote to disagree with my beliefs. But we both agree that we want peace and not war, but only one of us is willing to ensure peace can prevail.
Dennehy denigrated American democracy in his recent Letter to The Editor in the Online Only section of November 14, 2002 issue of The Informer, he stated “It is not democracy when our leaders ignore and manipulate those they are supposed to lead.” Which world leaders are the true manipulators? In Iraq, one may have their tongue amputated for criticizing Saddam Hussein. In America, our government does not use rape as a device of political intimidation, but that is what happens in Iraq.
Peace will not exist in Iraq is Saddam Hussein stays in power. Peace will not exist in the world if Saddam Hussein is allowed to continue to develop weapons of mass destruction and either use them himself, or smuggle these weapons to other countries who are against America who would ultimately use them. Peace can only exist if Saddam Hussein is taken out of power.
Saddam Hussein is today’s Adolph Hitler – and I doubt John Dennehy or even Professor Goldstein would argue today against the United States liberating Europe from Hitler’s Nazi regime. So what motivates the campus left to being against America’s War on Terror?
At Professor Goldstein’s “teach-in” Professor Doug Eichar stated that if “all the noise about war is little more than political posturing, it is likely that talk of war will subside after the November election.” Well, the election is over, President Bush’s party maintained control of the House and gained control of the Senate, but the threat of Saddam Hussein still exists, and President Bush has not abated from his promise to rid the world of terror. So much for that theory, Professor Eichar.
So let’s end the baseless conspiracy theories. Let’s stop attacking Bush’s intelligence. Let’s stop pretending that these protests occurring across the country are really about being anti-war. Peace is not merely the absence of conflict but also the presence of security and order. Removing Saddam Hussein from power will not only liberate a nation, but also restore security and order to the Middle East and the rest of the world.
“Anti-war” rallies were happening on American soil shortly after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and before the first bomb was ever dropped on the Taliban. These so-called “anti-war” activists are not so much “anti-war” as they are anti-American Pacifists. To them, even the atrocious acts of 9-11 do not justify President Bush’s War on Terror. To them, America was to blame for 9-11 and those attacks should have merely been a “wake up call” for America to rethink its foreign policies. These people ignore the whole truths of what America is and attempt to blemish the greatness of our nation and the freedoms we have in it.
The Taliban, Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and Saddam Hussein detest the freedom we take for granted here in America. It is alarming to me that there are people within this country who want to put a halt to the War on Terror. To do so would be in affect sponsoring the beliefs of those evil forces that choose threaten our beloved freedom. Terrorism is the true enemy of democracy – to be against the war on terrorism is to be against democracy, and if you’re against democracy, how can you be for America?
President Bush’s War on Terror is not much different than President Ronald Reagan’s “Peace through Strength” philosophy that brought an end to the Communist Soviet Empire. There are fights worth fighting in the world. The War on Terrorism is not about bombs, or an elitist empire, or excessive force; it’s a quest for worldwide peace. Is peace a goal not worth the effort? Being Anti-War-on-Terror is equal to being against peace. As President Bush said on September 20, 2001, “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” Which side do you want to be on?
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