Students have responsibility to protest war before it begins
COMMENTARY
James Zwilling

The daily news is different now.

The Bush administration changed it.

The White House blames the terrorists, Saddam Hussein and North Korean tyrants for the current military unrest in the world.

But Bush, his cabinet and those who support his military actions are the only tyrants here.

By next week, 150,000 U.S. military troops will have assembled in the Middle East poised for war and waiting for the command to go to war.

A command the White House now says is likely to come even without the support of the United Nations.

In North Korea, U.S. officials now say they will discuss, but not negotiate with North Korean leaders about its arsenal of nuclear weapons and that its decision to pull out of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

The North Koreans have said that should the U.S. attempt to use military action against them, they will unleash World War III.

Military experts say a war with Korea would likely not be a world war, but would be another Korean War for the United States. A war they say would be short, probably two months or so, but one that could leave 500,000 South Koreans and American military personnel dead. A war, they say, could leave even one million North Koreans dead.

At the center of the controversy, North Korea accuses Washington of trying to “evade its responsibility” for its country’s continuing energy crisis. Of that charge, the United States is guilty.

After all, the reason the U.S. so often finds itself in military crises is not because of threats to the U.S., but because we are trying to help out the “little guy.”

In this case, North Korea is the “little guy.” And although the United States may not agree with the political regime in place, differences in politics haven’t stopped the U.S. before.

But more important than all of the political agendas being presented in the world right now is what is happening here at home, in the daily news.

This mayhem of military action leads the news at all hours of the day. Expert after expert can be seen on news program after news program talking about the dangers of the current foreign policies. But hardly any of those stories are followed by stories of protest here in the United States.

For years, our parents have been telling us that we’ve never experienced anything like they experienced with Vietnam.

They’re right. We haven’t.

Yet.

They stood up and started protesting when the body bags started coming home. Our generation has the opportunities to stop these wars before our friends start coming home in body bags.

Thousands will march for peace this weekend in Washington, D.C. Thousands aren’t enough. In this age of technology and information, the young bright minds of this country have a responsibility to pool their resources and fight against fighting these wars.

With the Internet and other technological advances since the Vietnam era, our generation has the resources to organize a tremendous anti-war movement.

Yet, we have become too apathetic to do anything. We must educate others and ourselves about the evils of American military action in the Middle East, North Korea and other areas of the world.

After 9/11, everyone asked, “Why has this happened to us?” Pick up a newspaper, or watch the evening news. Our actions are why “this” happened to us.

And now, our nation continues its overt military action without blinking an eye. It’s time our generation takes a stand.

Without protest, we will be failures.

James Zwilling is a senior news-editorial journalism major from Phoenix, Ariz.