A crowd of more than 125 people gathered in the First United Methodist Church in Eugene for a forum to discuss the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, the U.S. international image and the future of the nation if oil dependency doesn’t diminish.
The forum, titled “Which Way Out? Beyond Iraq: Getting To The Big Picture,” argued that the U.S. occupation of Iraq is bad for America, bad for Iraq and bad for the world.
The forum was sponsored by Progressive Response, a program of the Community Alliance of Lane County. Progressive Response began after Sept. 11 with several anti-war rallies and has continued to sponsor events involving hundreds of people for protests, public forums and signature advertisements, its Web site states.
Dan Goldrich, an active PR member and political science professor emeritus at the University, said “the war on terror feeds fear and distorts politics and policy in the United States. It alienates much of the world, including vast numbers of people newly mobilizing and demanding equity, power, etcetera.”
“It diverts us from confronting major challenges,” Goldrich said.
Frank VanCleve, veterans contact for Rep. Peter Defazio, D-Ore., read a statement from the congressman that said even before Sept. 11, Bush’s administration had plans to attack Iraq. He called it the “most significant bait-and-switch in U.S. history.”
“Congress gave the president a blank check to go to war in Iraq,” the statement said.More than $200 billion of our tax dollars are being spent, VanCleve said.
“Let me be clear,” Defazio’s statement read. “Saddam Hussein was a tyrant, and I’m glad he’s gone. But, he was not a threat to U.S. security, which should be the threshold for spilling the blood of American troops.”
In his statement, Defazio urged public involvement. His statement said that although there’s little media coverage, “opposition in Congress to the war in Iraq has always existed.”
Carol Van Houten, a member of PR, discussed how the war was bad for Iraq by citing the World Bank and United Nations estimate of $55 billion needed to rebuild Iraq. She cited the various estimates of civilian death tolls, from 30,000 to 177,000, and argued that many Iraqis don’t want the type of economy the U.S. is imposing.
She also called President Bush’s statement that “if we fight them in Baghdad, we won’t have to fight them in Boston,” a false illusion.
“The United States couldn’t have presented (Osama) bin Laden with a better opportunity to prove to the Muslim world what he had been saying about us and our proximity and occupation in Iraq,” she said.
Oregon alone, Van Houten said, has lost 33 soldiers, 284 are wounded and $1.7 billion has been spent of Oregon taxpayers’ money.
She said that the image being spread of the Middle East, Muslims and Arabs is hurting the U.S. That’s clear in the decline in foreign student enrollment in American colleges. She said there is already a decreased interest in sciences and mathematics from American students, but a new report shows foreign student enrollments in U.S. colleges is decreasing.
“If this pattern continues, the competitive position of the U.S. will be in steep decline,” she said.
Using a PowerPoint presentation, PR showed slides, photos, graphs and quotations to further support its claim that Iraq is depleting everything from civil liberties to the increasingly unfavorable U.S. image.
Goldrich said a broad citizens’ movement is needed to “induce the public officials to promote new international institutions for peace making.” He said money, media and the political culture are reasons why elected officials can’t be trusted to bring about change.
“We pretty obviously can’t rely on elected officials to lead because this stuff is not getting discussed at present,” he said.
Visit the Community Alliance of Lane County Web site at www.calclane.org or call 541-485-1755 for more information and a list of projects and upcoming events.
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