TCOWI hosts panel to discuss war, media bias

Students, faculty members and war veterans gathered in the basement of Braker Hall yesterday to discuss the human effects of the war and occupation of Iraq.

The Tufts Coalition to Oppose War on Iraq (TCOWI) assembled the five-person panel. The organizers aimed to show a bias in the US media's coverage of the situation in Iraq. TCOWI leader and Professor Gary Goldestein said panels like yesterday's could serve to counter such biases in the media.

"The war is not over," Goldstein said. "The destruction and death visited upon the people is horrifying. Yet the mainstream media in the US presents us with the restricted, even rosy pictures of present conditions."

The panelists, who volunteered to speak free of charge, "represent a spectrum of aspects of our involvement with the Middle East" that can help paint a more realistic picture of the situation in Iraq, Goldstein said. "We hope to reveal that opposition to the war is coming from many places, including from the soldiers themselves."

As co-founders of Military Families Speak Out, Nancy Lessin and Charley Richardson have devoted time to providing soldiers with an organized platform from which to voice their opinions about the war. Their organization, which now boasts a membership of 1,000 families, was founded in November 2002 to oppose the possibility of war in Iraq.

"We didn't want [the administration] to use our kids as cannon fodder," Lessin said.

"Those who are dangerous to this country are sitting in Washington, not in Iraq," Richardson said. He and Lessin traveled to Washington with several members of their organization to urge members of Congress to consider the ramifications of a prolonged occupation of Iraq. They asked Congress to look at the Vietnam memorial and realize that "this is the time, this is the moment" in which Congress could prevent history from repeating itself.

"They did nothing," Lessin said.

Decorated Vietnam veteran, author and filmmaker Marc Levy further clarified connections between this current conflict and the Vietnam War by relating personal experiences with combat.

"In both wars, the soldiers were taught to dehumanize the enemy and fight for things they often didn't believe in," Levy said. Intense resistance from within the troops is pervading today's military forces in much the same way it did in Vietnam, Levy said. If anything, he added, resistance is spreading quicker today.

Rana Abdul-Aziz (LA '03) rounded out the diverse panel. Abdul-Aziz's strong background of International Relations and her Iraqi heritage allowed her to provide considerable insight into the war's effect on the Iraqi citizens.

"The fact of war is that no matter what outcome, it leaves a trail of destruction that never goes away," Abdul-Aziz said. She stressed that the wrong kinds of Iraqis are currently in control, and placed partial blame on US encouragement of these unqualified sources. "Everyone who wants to do something constructive is not being given a voice," she said.

Although they came from diverse backgrounds, the panel seemed to share the same basic belief that occupation must end. It was wrong to invade Iraq, and it is wrong to occupy Iraq, Lessin said. The US must get out because "there is no right way to do a wrong thing," she asserted.

The panel discussion was TCOWI's second presentation of the year. Both last month's Al-Jazeera lecture and yesterday's panel presentation were designed to educate the public about the reality of America's foreign policy and what it is actually doing to people, Goldstein said. TCOWI is always trying to put current foreign policy into a global and historical perspective, he added.