Harvard Anti-War Coalition

Iraq War is an outrage and an embarrassment.

This year, a small but passionate group of students comprising the Harvard Anti-War Coalition has been meeting weekly to express and direct our anger about our country’s military presence in Iraq. We are outraged not only by the fact that out government has spent the past five years embroiled in a terribly misguided string of arrogant military actions and human rights violations, but by the fact that Harvard lacks a visible and cohesive student protest movement. Although a large percentage of Harvard students oppose the war in some form, this opposition has yet to coalesce into an effective movement. We believe strongly that the war affects all areas of our lives, be they explicitly political or no, and we hope to see our movement grow in strength and numbers in the future.

The war is destructive for our country and for Iraq in countless ways. The fact that we entered this war with very little knowledge about Iraqi culture and how to respond to it is, frankly, embarrassing; the fact that we felt comfortable doing so undermines President Bush’s claims that this is a war about spreading democracy and stabilizing the Middle East. The government’s desire for stability in the region comes from its desire for stable oil prices, not from a concern for the lives of the Iraqi people.

We can see in this war the newest phase of America’s aggressively imperialist tendencies and our government’s desire to shape the world according to its whims. These tendencies have alienated former member nations of Bush’s “Coalition of the Willing,” a large majority of Americans, and an even larger majority of Iraqis.

Part of what has created that alienation is the American government’s stunning disregard for human rights over the course of the war. In October, HAWC hosted a screening of a documentary film that showed in graphic detail how American military forces have blockaded and closed hospitals, making both urgent and basic medical care for Iraqi citizens nearly impossible. This is not an isolated phenomenon; the list of human rights violations is endless. Unprovoked attacks on civilians, the torture of prisoners — is this why we took Saddam Hussein out of power?

In our opinion, the war has to end now. It has to be done carefully, but it has to be done now, and quickly. The current political rhetoric pushes the idea of a concrete end to the war into the backs of people’s minds. One rule of change is that you have to aim past your goals, because once compromise starts you’ll end up losing ground. If anti-war advocates content themselves with talks about a phased withdrawal sometime post-election, the reality will turn out to be years of additional military presence in Iraq; tens of thousands of additional deaths (both American and Iraqi); trillions of American taxpayer dollars that will not be spent on education, health care, social security, the environment, or our failing economy; and the erosion of human rights and civil liberties.

We want to encourage Harvard to take a stand against these atrocities by divesting from war profiteers and abusers of human rights. It is unacceptable for the university to support the imperialist aggression this war represents, whether implicitly or explicitly.

We participate in weekly Peace Walks as part of a joint effort with the Cambridge community. Every Wednesday at noon, we meet in front of the John Harvard statue to share thoughts and feelings about the war, promote upcoming actions, and express a silent solidarity with those who have been killed in the last five years.

Next Wednesday, March 19, is the fifth anniversary of this war. HAWC and other members of the community have been planning a rally event to commemorate the destruction of the past five years and to protest its continuation. We will meet in Harvard Yard, hear from student, faculty, and guest speakers, enjoy a variety of artistic performances, then march to Boston Common to join the Boston community in calling for an end to the destruction. Please join us!

Karen Narefsky ’11 (narefsky@fas) is a member of the Harvard Anti-War Coalition.