Current situation isn't cutting it, says Lo Basso

By Francesca Lo Basso
Collegian Staff
September 13, 2006

Life’s hard. I know, get a helmet and all that jazz. Reality isn’t fair, real life is high school and all the world’s a stage, all the men and women being merely players. But disliking the truth is one thing, while acknowledging and admitting you’re not going to do anything about it is a whole nother ballgame: welcome to American politics, where integrity is more difficult to find than weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The facts? According to a CNN poll conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation, 62 percent of people polled believe neither America nor Iraq is winning the war. 55 percent believe the war with Iraq has made the United States less safe. And 90 percent of those polled by CBS feel that the threat of terrorism has either increased or stayed the same since the war started.

These numbers are not isolated. They have been continuously increasing over the past three years, ever since the Polling Report started collecting this data at the beginning of the war. Nor are these numbers the propagandized results of a bunch of Marxist-Communist-left-leaning-hippies.

A Newsweek poll, conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates, found that 63 percent of those polled disapprove of the way Bush is handling the situation in Iraq. The CBS/New York Times’ results to the same question have a 62 percent disapproval rating, 35 percent of which are Republicans. ABC News/Washington Post and USA Today/Gallup Poll also had 62 percent disapproval ratings. CNN’s results found 58 percent of respondents are against the war; the Associated Press 59 percent. Even according to a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll, only 36 percent of respondents believe Republicans will do a better job on handling the situation in Iraq in the future.

The truth of the matter is that Americans no longer support the war. Regardless of how many war hawks were flapping their wings when Congress initially voted– and how many Americans agreed that they were justified in voting the way they did – the majority of people agree anymore. And that’s what America purports itself to be: a democracy. You only need to pass fourth grade history to know that “majority rules” in our country– and yet the President of the United States seems to be unaware of this fact.

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow has said, “President Bush understands there is growing U.S. concern over his handling of the Iraq War, but will not rely on polls to determine when to withdraw troops.” The majority of Americans feel less safe than before the war, the majority no longer agrees with his actions, the majority are unhappy.

And Bush? According to Snow, Dubya’s response is, “. . . A war can wear on a nation. Whatever the bleakness is, whatever the facts are on the ground, you figure out how to win. You can’t do that by reading polls.” I’m sorry Mr. Bush, I didn’t realize 2,500 American lives were lost to win; I thought they were lost to bring democracy to the Middle East. I thought this war was about stopping Hussein’s slaying of his own people. I thought this war was about freedom. Sorry. I guess I thought wrong.

But the question still remains: what can be done about this grievous injustice? Do we allow ourselves as citizens, as constituents, as loud-mouthed opinionated Americans to be ignored? Well, not this loud-mouthed opinionated American. I’ve signed the Declaration of Peace (declarationofpeace.org), a pledge to take nonviolent steps to end the war in Iraq. Not only does the declaration call on Congress to devise a timetable by Sept. 21 for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, but it supports (among other things) an Iraqi-led peace process, including a peace conference to shape a post-occupation transition and an international peacekeeping presence if mandated by this peace process, increased support for U.S. veterans of the Iraq War and no so-called “preventative” war against Iran or any other nation. Over 350 peace, justice and antiwar organizations have endorsed the Declaration of Peace, and thousands of citizens have signed it. As part of the declaration, if Congress doesn’t comply with its guidelines, the week of Sept. 21 is going to host a series of protests, rallies, marches, vigils and other acts of civil disobedience in cities across the nation.

The American presence in Iraq is not working. It’s not ending the violence – it’s increasing it. The number of resistance fighters in Iraq has gone up from 5,000 in November of 2003 to 20,000 in November of 2005. With a price tag of $320 billion, the war has been an economic, social and political disaster.

Maybe I’m naïve. Maybe my friends are right when they call me a peace-loving hippie. Maybe I’m taking too much advantage of my privilege as a college-educated youth to know that while I still have idealism and the energy to promote it, I should put everything in my power into doing so. Maybe, but I’m OK with that.

lobassof1@lasalle.edu