Rational thought still popular on campus
COMMENTARY
Will Brown

TCU has shown that its campus is truly home to sound, rational thought. This was best exemplified two weeks ago when the university hosted a lecture from University of Texas at Austin journalism professor Robert Jensen. While some believe that an event attended by fewer people than a Friday morning lecture class is front-page material, certainly the majority of people at TCU regarded it as a ridiculous event.

Jensen’s message on April 2 was that our government is deceiving us. While this notion is nothing new to most people, he was specifically speaking of the idea that the Bush administration is hiding the real reason for the war with Iraq. Instead of Operation Iraqi Freedom, he said the war should be “an operation for trying to get long-term control of the oil out of the Middle East.” Jensen is not alone, as his opinion was joined by a handful of TCU students who still do not care how many Iraqis are killed by Saddam Hussein or how many threats the United States receives from Iraq.

The American Petroleum Institute says that the Persian Gulf supplies nearly 14 percent of oil imports to the United States, with Iraq contributing to just 3 percent. Forty percent of our oil is domestic, while the other 46 percent comes from more than 40 countries, all of which are vying to supply the United States with oil. With so little coming from Iraq alone, it does not seem to be much in the interest of the United States to go to war with Iraq solely because it is a major source of petroleum.

Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that Iraq’s oil will be held “in trust for the Iraqi people” in the event of any invasion. He says it should remain a steady source of income for the Iraqi people. While Saddam had commanded his army to destroy Iraq’s oil wells, the United States still protects and secures the wells. It is important to remember that oil sales will allow Iraq to flourish and prosper as a society in the future.

Without Saddam in control, a pro-U.S., democratic Iraqi government would, indeed, allow the United States to obtain more oil at a lower price. The fact that the United States will benefit in some way is not a secret, but this must be put into perspective. It is pertinent to remember the thousands of innocent citizens who have been tortured and killed by Saddam and his family.

How is U.S. involvement in protecting the citizens of other countries so different than other situations in the 1990s? Where were the radical claims and anti-war demonstrations when President Clinton got the U.S. military involved in the affairs of Kosovo and Somalia? U.S. national security was not even an issue during that time. If the Clinton administration can go into another country and protect those citizens against genocide and torture, why can’t President Bush? Why must outrageous claims be made against this administration?

Americans have the right to say what they want about our government, and Robert Jensen is no exception. It is not our right to have to listen. The faculty and students at TCU have shown that they overwhelmingly favor the policies of President Bush by choosing not to attend this lecture and the several other liberal rallies that were so poorly attended this semester.

We must not forget how we were so blatantly lied to by our last president, and we should appreciate the fact that we now have such an honorable administration.

Will Brown is a junior health fitness major from Waco. He can be reached at (w.f.brown@tcu.edu).