n Re: “Terrorists are winning this war on D.C.’s streets,” (page 7, Sept. 26).
Though Tara Stroll makes a case against anti-war protests during wartime, I wonder if she really knows what she implies by condemning them.
People believe that the war is wrong for more reasons than the few Ms. Stroll suggests in her column, and to suppress that belief, when 67 percent of people polled by CNN on Sept. 19 disapprove of the way President Bush is handling Iraq, is to stifle what makes America great: a difference of opinion.
I won’t address constitutional issues here and point out why freedom of speech is so critical in our society, because I suspect that not only is Ms. Stroll aware of this, as she does have a weekly column, but because it would give her too much satisfaction if I used one of her main complaints to argue against her point.
Ms. Stroll comments at one point: “If U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq now, there’d be nothing else to call it but defeat.” Slowly but immediately beginning to pull out of Iraq does not have to spell weakness; in fact, it would show strength. Realizing mistakes and improving upon them is a highly respectable quality, whether you are the leader of the free world or not. It would be far bolder of President Bush and his administration to admit invading Iraq was hasty and costly than to keep fighting a war because it “looks better.”
Perhaps instead of focusing on Iraq so fervently still, President Bush should concentrate on imminent threats and problems, such as Afghanistan and its reconstruction, and the devastation on the Gulf Coast.
Ms. Stroll claims that “There is certainly room for academic debate about whether or not it was the right choice to go to war” and she believes “that before and after the war, it is important for there to be a serious and critical discussion of American foreign policy.” Somehow I still feel her view on the war will ooze inflexible right-wing conservatism, regardless of when the war is discussed, and just look where that’s gotten us so far.
The strongest part of Ms. Stroll’s argument is that our enemies in Iraq, and over the world for that matter, are invigorated by protests and their anti-war message.
Whether people protest or not our enemies will continue to derive strength from American society. That has nothing to do with protests and everything to do with inherent hate of freedom. Because Americans are not subjected to mass oppression, our enemies fear us. They want to hold their people down and because the U.S. represents independence and liberty, they hate us.
Interestingly enough, by writing a column condemning protest, Ms. Stroll is protesting herself.
Exactly what makes us different from them is what Ms. Stroll thinks we should suppress. If she really thinks that protesting during a war is un-American, then she is missing the point of America. Different ideas make us distinct and progressive, unlike them. Ms. Stroll, methinks you protest too much about anti-war protests.
Kenna Caprio CGS ’06
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