It's the Ignorance, Stupid

Did yesterday’s student protesters in front of the Science Center look kind of familiar? These are, after all, the same folks who brought us such hits as “Living Wage,” “Justice for Janitors,” “Save Cornel West,” and “Justice for Janitors We Didn’t Get Justice For Last Time.” In my four years here, they have been more omnipresent than B.J. Averell ‘03 and as unavoidable as an IOP poster. Well, the issue has changed this year, but the protesters haven’t. Say what you will about the Iraq protesters, but they are as loud as they have ever been and they still know more folk songs than my parents.

But there are other, more troubling similarities. Today’s protesters are the same resume rebels we have seen over the last few years. They are the same guilty middle class suburbanites who hunger for a social cause as grand as the movements their parents joined in college, even if no such cause currently exists. They are the superheroes of non-issues who can smell a distressed janitor or a non-fair-trade cup of coffee from a mile away and can instantly mount an impassioned protest without even thinking.

And it shows. Interviewing several sign-bearing participants at yesterday’s rally, I found that the protesters are still, as Shakespeare might say, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

The questions started off easy. What are you protesting? “War.” And what do you want instead? “Peace.” And how do you feel about bunny rabbits, rainbows and nice people? I didn’t ask. The point is, there is nobody out there who feels differently on this issue—not even George W. Bush, who the protesters have seemingly decided is coup-worthy, if their posters are any indication.

I dug deeper. What do you think we should do? “Inspections,” came the universal reply. What a coincidence. This is exactly what the president called for in his speech last night, not war. In his speech to the nation, Bush asked for a resolution with teeth to ensure that inspections are effective and successful. He did not, however, ask for war. In fact, he said, “I hope that this will not require military action.” He further clarified, “Approving this resolution does not mean that military action is imminent or unavoidable.”

I understand why people may have trouble believing Bush when he says this, both because of his cowboy reputation and because of recent statements about Saddam Hussein such as “After all, this is the guy who tried to kill my dad.” But Bush must favor trying inspections for three reasons. First, it is in our interest to know what Saddam is building and to disarm him, and this can be accomplished much more easily through proper inspections than through war. Second, Bush has no reason to anger the entire international community unless he truly feels it is necessary. Third, Bush would gain nothing by waging a messy war as this is likely to be, especially now that some Democrats have polarized the issue.

Therefore, the only sane conclusion is that Bush would only resort to war if the cost of inaction becomes greater. It is simply cynical to assign any other motives to the president on this issue. The Commander-in-Chief gig is not one that anybody takes lightly, and, tempting as it may be, we cannot pretend Bush is acting out of greed for oil or some weird complex to avenge his father. To do so is both ignorant and dangerous.

We must remember two things. First, the president has daily access to intelligence that we will never see and can hardly imagine about the threats this country faces. I know several people who, by virtue of positions they have once held, have received this briefing. They have all told me it is terrifying. Second, we must remember that we cannot always wait for the smoking gun. Instead, we should remember that you never hear the bullet that kills you. If we reserve action until we are absolutely sure that the fellow pointing the gun at us is about to pull the trigger, it may be too late. That was the lesson of Sept. 11.

It was a lesson that Bush learned well over the last year. Don’t forget that it was only until fairly recently that Democrats focused their criticism, not on Bush’s aggression towards Iraq, but on his failure to act on pre-9/11 intelligence vaguely indicating a future attack. The art of international relations has not gotten any easier since then. That is why all we can ask and expect of the president is that he and his staff consider their confidential information and choose their course wisely.

In the end, that is all we could ask of the protesters too. I asked them, what would you do if the inspections failed? “We’ll have to consider further action then,” several people replied. So will Bush.

Joshua I. Weiner ’03 is a government concentrator in Leverett House.