Preemtively Protesting for Peace
By Jeff Horwitz
News Editor

As many as ten thousand peace protesters marched in Westwood, Los Angeles Sunday afternoon in a day of nationwide opposition to a possible war with Iraq. Stretching from Anchorage, AK to New York City, the date of the protests was chosen to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the start of US bombing in Afghanistan, and to show opposition to the Bush administration's military tactics in the fight against terrorism. Dozens of five-college students chanting and waving homemade signs among the crowd in Los Angeles gave evidence of the growing strength of the on-campus anti-war movement in Claremont.

The rally was organized by Not in Our Name (NION), a national coalition of celebrities and intellectuals united against war. In the hot afternoon sun, speakers including Ed Asner and Mike Farrell, a Vietnam veteran, urged the crowd against apathy in the face of preemptive military strikes against Iraq. "We must insist that our legislators and our media ask the question that no one is asking of the Bush administration: how many casualties?" Farrell asked. "How many will die in this war that you insist is necessary?"

At the conclusion of the speeches, the demonstrators marched to the US Army Reserve Training Center a few blocks away, where they encountered LA County sheriff officers guarding the building. The protest was peaceful, and after a few more minutes of statements by Not In Our Name representatives, the marchers returned to the Federal Building. People from all walks of life streamed through the city streets in a demonstration that was as diverse in its participants as it was unified in its opposition to war. Baby boomer radicals marched next to Chicano youth organizations and masked anarchists, giving the protest an unusual demographic that led to an eclectic mix of slogans. Refurbished Vietnam-era chants like "Hey, Bush what do you say? How many kids have you killed today?" were answered by more modern ones like "Who let the dogs out? Bush! Bush! Bush! Bush!"

Although the total number of participants varies according to the agency or organization asked, the total attendance was substantially more than the 3,500 people that the NION's permit detailed. Dotting the crowd were faces from the Claremont Colleges. "It's a great feeling to be together with people who believe in speaking out. There's a real sense of solidarity," said Libby Coggshall '03. "I was very surprised by all the people from Claremont." The protest's organizers claim in material published on their website (www.notinourname.net) that the event's popularity was due to a swing in national opinion toward a diplomatic solution. A recent Washington Post-ABC news poll seems to support this. While three out of five Americans are in favor of removing Saddam Hussein from power, 47 percent oppose doing so without approval from America's allies. 52 percent of those polled said they feared President Bush was moving too quickly toward another war in the Persian Gulf.

Doubts as to the wisdom and efficacy of a military assault on Iraq have begun to appear even within the ranks of government. George Tenet, director of the CIA, warned in an unusually blunt public statement released Tuesday that if Saddam Hussein feels personally threatened he might seize "his last chance to exact vengeance by taking a large number of victims with him."

Student participants in Sunday's rally named these same doubts and broader humanitarian concerns as their reasons for demonstrating.

"The government has not told us what is going on," commented Josh Shipper '03 in an interview with The Student Life. "If the only conclusion we can reach is that we don't know if we support a lot of people dying on both sides, I think we need to be protesting."

David Pihl, a Pitzer sophomore, agreed. "I think we have to exhaust all the diplomatic solutions before we even consider a war," he said.

Acting on this conviction, Pihl has become one of the most prominent anti-war activists on campus, organizing transportation for twenty demonstrators to and from Sunday's rally in Los Angeles, as well as last week's teach-in on Iraq at the Pitzer Broad center. "We're going to be sure to stay visible at the colleges," he said. "We're going to have more teach-ins, and make sure we're heard.… If we go around bombing other countries without reason, we're just as bad as the terrorists who destroyed the World Trade Center. It's hypocritical."

Not all the protesters' reasons for attending the march were so global. While Libby Coggshall '03 opposes any prospective military action on moral grounds, she also fears a war on a more personal level. "I have a friend serving in the Army who's peacekeeping in Kosovo right now," she said. "A lot of the guys on his base already have their desert uniforms, and he doesn't know if he will be sent to Iraq. I don't want him to go."

Though Coggshall has a "bad hunch" that a war in Iraq will soon be reality, Sunday's rally left her a little more optimistic. "Sunday's protest was a powerful statement that we're not buying this," she said. "We had to stand up and be counted. There's always that small, slight hope that we can stop this war before any more people die."