March 20, marked the fifth anniversary of the on-going Second Gulf War. Four days later the official number of United States military personnel war dead passed 4,000. Ninety-seven percent of those killed died after President George Bush declared major combat operations over. “The Iraq War is our longest sustained engagement in quite some time,” said Lisa McLeod, assistant professor of philosophy, who is currently teaching a course on just war theory and pacifism. “It is longer than our engagement in Korea, in the First or World War Two. It is going to be hard in the long run for this to look like a good idea.”
Despite the much-vaunted troop surge that committed an additional 21,500 U.S. soldiers to the conflict, violence remains endemic throughout the country. The most recent fighting between Coalition forces and the Shiite paramilitary group the Mahdi Army is ongoing and has cost 240 lives across the country since March 25.
“(The war) is a shambles, it really is like Vietnam all over again,” said visiting assistant professor of political science Robert Duncan. “Our arrogance, our hubris never ceases to amaze me. We are trying to impose democratic idea of government while completely disregarding centuries old cultures, religions, and tribal identities in the area. We’ll be there until the next election when we get some sanity in the White House.”
According to many pundits, the cost of the war cannot only be calculated in blood and treasure. Perceptions of American prestige and “moral capital” abroad are at an all time low.
“America after the invasion of Iraq is no longer the superpower it was before,” said John Simpson, World Affairs editor for BBC News in an opinion column for that news service. “We have seen how hard it is for the Americans to deal with a few thousand lightly armed volunteers . The U.S. state department finds it much harder nowadays to be taken seriously when it criticizes other countries for their use of torture and arbitrary arrest.”
Opposition to the war at home remains high. The legitimacy of the war and the duration of the occupation dominates the presidential campaign. Ending the war is a priority for both democratic candidates.
“We need to begin this withdrawal (from Iraq) immediately because this war has not made us safer,” said presidential hopeful Barack Obama in his Jan. 28 response to George Bush’s State of the Union address. “The only way we’re finally going to pressure the Iraqis to reconcile and take responsibility for their future is to immediately begin a responsible withdrawal.”
According to BBC News, tens of thousands of protesters marched against the war in cities across the United States and 66 percent of American adults polled by CBS News oppose the war.
Presumably, these numbers reflect the views of Guilford’s students, faculty and staff. On-campus anti-war activism has been scarce, with the exception of Quaker-led candlelight vigils to mark the fifth-year anniversary.
“It is surprising to me that Guilford students haven’t been more vocal,” McLeod said. “Guilford, like America, suffers from a lack of engaged public discourse either local or global.