For the past few Thursdays, the five-colleges have resounded with the beautiful noise of students marching for peace. With all the complacency in our society it is really wonderful to see people taking an interest in the world around them. Yet at the same time, I’ve heard voices saying that these protests are wrong, that students should simply support their government, that to protest our military action in the South Asia is Un-American. So, in response to that, here are some reasons why students have a clear right to protest.

First, let’s look at a few reasons why the war in Afghanistan deserves to be protested. One major issue involved in this war is "collateral damage." I have read several arguments like this in favor of "the war on terrorism." "There will probably be some collateral damage, but that’s a sacrifice that we will have to make." This is a problem because as nice as collateral damage sounds, it means dead people. It is a problem because we aren’t sacrificing anything when we kill these people. An Afghan killed by an American bomb won’t gain anything if we win our "war on terrorism" and neither will his or her children, friends or anyone they know. While American pundits sit back and talk about necessary sacrifices, Afghan people are being sacrificed and getting nothing in return. A life lost is a life lost, no matter when, how, or why it happens. The 6000 lives lost in the awful tragedy on September 11 are no different from the lives lost when we bomb Kabul. Until we realize this, we have no moral ground to stand on. Our government may assure us that civilian casualties will be kept to a minimum, but it took twenty years for us to find out about certain atrocities committed by American troops in Vietnam. When are we really going to find out what is happening in Afghanistan?

The second problem with the "war on terrorism" is that it isn’t going to stop terrorism. Our new war is much like the longstanding and ridiculously unsuccessful war on drugs. Just as our leaders believe putting drug dealers in jail will stop the drug problem, they believe that getting rid of a few terrorists will end terrorism. What they fail to realize is that as long as people want drugs there will be people to give it to them, and as long as there is hatred of the U.S.A. in the Islamic world (or anywhere) there will be terrorists willing to act on that hatred. Our current war is only fueling that hatred. Nobody looks at the motivation behind the September 11 attacks beyond calling the terrorists irrational psychopaths. This they may be, but these psychopaths were angry about U.S. involvement in Saudi Arabia, Israel and other Islamic countries. If we really wanted to end terrorism, we could start by ending our support of authoritarian regimes and reducing our dependence on foreign oil. Of course it’s so much easier to just drop some bombs.

These are just a few of many reasons why this is an unjust war. With that established, people need to get out in the streets and protest. It seems that a lot of Americans believe it is their duty to sit idly by, wave their American flags and watch their elected leaders do whatever it is they do, right or wrong.

People think that we get our one chance to participate by voting every few years, and after that things are beyond our control. Wake up! A good American is not a sheep. Blindly following our leaders wherever it is they might lead us is not the foundation of a democracy. While it is true that our government is based on a representative system, we can’t expect that our leaders will represent us fairly simply because we elected them. If we want our voices to be heard we have to stand up and shout. Look at our president. Whether or not he technically won the election, he clearly did not get the majority of the popular vote. Therefore, a man who is not the chosen leader of the majority of Americans is making huge decisions that affect us all. If people who did not vote for him want him to take their views into account, they are going to have to demonstrate those views in a way so as to get the president’s attention. One of these ways is to protest.

A lot of people complain about direct action like this because they think that it doesn’t do anything, that all of the marching and yelling won’t make the changes we are looking for. Yet there is overwhelming historical evidence showing that it can. Look at the civil rights movement: if Martin Luther King Jr, Cesar Chavez and thousands of other people hadn’t gone into the streets and marched, sang and spoke across the country, who knows when America’s leaders would have woken up and realized that our nation needed massive civil rights reform. More recently environmental groups have been able to change the policies of corporations and the government through marches, demonstrations and boycotts. Social movements such as these are not going to provide instant change, but they do tell our government that something needs to be done, and oftentimes something comes out of them.

Perhaps 75 protestors standing at the corner of Arrow and Indian Hill aren’t going to stop the war in Afghanistan, but every movement has to start somewhere. Probably the most important effect of the student protests is on the protestors themselves. When you know that something is wrong it is important to express that, and to let others see your point of view. Otherwise, if people simply kept it inside, they might slowly forget about their indignation as they watched the glowing news reports about "Operation Enduring Freedom," which are so full of wonderful patriotism, but hardly ever mention "collateral damage" or starving refugees.

These protests are important because they keep the momentum going. That momentum will build, as anti-war groups grow and organize, and make louder and louder statements. If those statements get loud enough, our leaders will have no choice but see that the war they are fighting is wrong.