Daily Reminder: ROTC students Ruth Yusckat, left, a freshman in pre-aerospace engineering, and Andrew Hardie, a junior in aerospace engineering raise the American and Alabama flags at sunrise by Samford Hall. Pete Riley / PHOTO EDITOR
In the past two weeks, the war effort in Iraq has reached two saddening milestones.
Last Tuesday, March 19, marked the fifth anniversary of the United States’ invasion of Iraq.
On Easter, the American death toll reached 4,000 after four soldiers were killed by a bomb in Baghdad.
According to the Associated Press, the U.S. citizens killed include soldiers, as well as eight civilians from the Defense Department.
“One day, people will look back at this moment in history and say, ‘Thank God there were courageous people willing to serve, because they laid the foundations for peace for generations to come’,” President Bush said during a meeting at the State Department Monday.
The lives lost aren’t the only rising costs of war.
According to an article published by The New York Times last Tuesday, Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel-prize winning economist, estimates the long-term costs of the war total more than $4 trillion, while the Congressional Budget office and other analysts estimate $1 trillion to $2 trillion is a “more realistic” figure. The same article cites the Pentagon estimating the war costs totalling $600 billion.
“Every domestic program is suffering from the war in Iraq,” said Theodore Becker, a professor in political science.
Becker said the current military budget, which does not include the supplemental funding for the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, is the highest it has been in history, taking away funding from other budgets, including education.
The reputation of the United States is being severely affected by the war.
Public opinion polls show the prestige of the United States is down.
Becker said the war isn’t the only factor, but is the central issue.
“World opinion is very anti-American and that is fueled by the invasion and occupation of Iraq,” Becker said.
He added there are countries who are exceptions to the declining opinion of the United States, but said they are few and scattered.
Here on the Plains, students and faculty members have mixed feelings about the growing number of American deaths and the increasing funding for the war effort, as well as the future of U.S. presence in Iraq and the consequences of the war.
“From the beginning, (Saddam Hussein) needed to be taken out of power,” said Matthew Reel, a junior in criminology. “If we left now, it would be ridiculous chaos.”
Reel served in Iraq for 12 months between May 2005 and May 2006.
He said the growing number of American casualties is a reality of war.
“It makes me sad because they’re my brothers and sisters in arms, but you have to look at (the deaths) in context,” Reel said.
Victoria Chantre, a freshman in microbiology, said she thinks the war is “just a waste of time.”
“All we’re doing is killing innocent people and our own people,” Chantre said. “Enough is enough.”
As for the number of soldiers who have died in the war, Chantre thinks the numbers should never have reached current heights.
“That’s a lot of brothers, boyfriends and sons that people shouldn’t have lost,” Chantre said. “Those lives can’t be replaced.”
Jarvis Hunter, a senior in electrical engineering, said he doesn’t support the war now and didn’t support the efforts at the beginning of the war.
“People are just dying and (the government is) not making progress,” Hunter said. “I don’t think they’ve reached their major goals.”
Phil Forrest, a research engineer for the physics department in the College of Sciences and Mathematics, said he supports the war in the big picture, but said the lack of strategy is the biggest problem.
“The general objectives of the war were probably noble, but the strategy and execution are abysmal,” Forrest said.
He also said he thinks too much money has been spent in the five years, saying that with the funding the government has spent on the war, the U.S. could have new and advanced technologies.
“We could have a moon base,” Forrest said.
Forrest also said the only options he sees for ending the war would be to cut and run out of Iraq or stay and kill. Neither option is attractive to Forrest.
“I can’t see any good way out, frankly,” Forrest said.
