Cortese says she may have been naïve, but she really thought the war with Iraq would not happen — not without U.N. support. She found it particularly depressing because the invasion of Iraq showed the sweeping scope of America’s worldwide power.
“The U.S.,” she says, “has a blank check to do anything they want, wherever.”
That power crushed a lot of protesters’ spirits, she says.
Brian Pearsall, sophomore integrated social studies education major, says instead of looking at the reasons against the war, people should look at the lack of reasons for a war.
“All the reasons Bush gave, like weapons of mass destruction,” Pearsall says, “Where are they? They played up a connection between al-Qaida and Osama (bin Laden) and Iraq, which is ridiculous.”
Pearsall says, in theory, liberating the Iraqi people isn’t necessarily a bad idea, and he stresses he in no way supports Saddam Hussein’s regime.
“There’s a lot of bad stuff all over the world. We only want to liberate people in our interest,” Pearsall says.
Pearsall says Americans look at war differently than the rest of the world.
“Other countries feel the horrors of war. You see pictures of bombs dropping over Baghdad, but you can’t feel that. Can you imagine bombs over D.C.?”
Pearsall agrees, and says opposition to war does not make one a radical.
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“You would think by protesting, you want to stop the war,” he says. “Did I realistically think that would happen? No, not really. You have to look at the smaller victories. Putting pressure on the government builds for the future.”
Pearsall says last year he took a bus from Akron to a protest in Washington, D.C., and saw all kinds of people.
“Obviously you’re going to have more liberal people. I’m not saying everyone was a radical leftist,” Pearsall says. “The entire bus was full of people in their 60s and 70s.”
Both Pearsall and Cortese say they are definitely not pacifists.
“Yes, I think there are just wars,” Cortese says. “I just don’t think the U.S. can be in one.”
anti-americanism & media
Pearsall and Cortese say they think anti-Americanism is a problem around the globe.
“Anti-Americanism is getting worse and worse,” Cortese says. “Do I think it’s unfounded? No, and I’m an American. I’m an American but not by choice. I’m a human being.”
Cortese says if she were a Palestinian or Iraqi, having been through what they have, she would understand why they might hate us.
“The U.S. really, in a very simple way, appears to be a big bully with big toys and lots of money,” Cortese says.
Pearsall agrees.
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“People see us as very arrogant and all about money greed and power,” Pearsall says. “Personally, I think our patriotism is much closer to nationalism.”
Cortese says there are a variety of reasons Americans are so removed from world events, and a lot of that deals with the U.S. media.
She says she thinks the coverage of the Iraq conflict, which was supposed to be more extensive than the coverage of any past conflict, basically stuck to what the government wanted us to hear.
Pearsall says he watches the news, but he doesn’t necessarily think that makes a person completely informed.
“I watch CNN a lot — I’m not going to say I’m better than that,” Pearsall says. “But I don’t think watching a 20 second blurb on what’s going on in Iraq is going to give you a clear picture.”
Cortese says she knew a student from Italy who spent a year in Chicago, and he was surprised about the lack of political knowledge among American students. She says he knew more about American foreign and domestic policy than they did.
Cortese says this is cause for concern.
“There’s so much emphasis on pop culture,” she says. “People know more about J.Lo and Ben Affleck than the Iraqi population. “In other countries people talk about it. It’s OK to want to discuss what is going on in the world.” |
