War has been an unavoidable conversation topic on campus for the last two weeks. Monday the university brought the issue to the forefront by holding two of three panel discussions on the topic.
The first, titled "Why War, Now? The USA, Legitimacy and Preemption," drew a crowd of nearly 100 Ball State students and faculty. The topic the panelists mainly focused on was whether or not the war with Iraq is legitimate.
George Wolfe, music instructor and director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, said everyone -- even peace advocates -- agree that there is a problem with Saddam Hussein. There is only one question that divides people.
"Is war the most effective response to the problem in Iraq?" Wolfe asked rhetorically.
Wolfe asserted that war is not the most effective response, and two of the other panelists agreed. The fourth, history professor Kevin Smith, described himself as being "not pro-war, but not calling for a halt to the war."
"If war doesn't work," Smith asked, "then what does?"
Smith said the other panelists failed to offer a better solution, even though they said war was the incorrect response to a continual problem.
The legitimacy of war in general did not come into question at this forum, but the legitimacy of preemptive war was the focus. Assistant provost and international affairs expert Cyrus Reed said preemption is legitimate sometimes.
"If I see Dr. Wolfe is going to punch me in the nose, and I punch him in the stomach first, that is OK to keep him from bloodying my nose," Reed explained.
Reed said he wondered when Hussein became more of a threat than what he has been for the past decade. If Hussein has not become more of a threat, Reed said he wondered why the U.S. government had a sudden urge to go to war.
Geography professor Faiz Rahman said George W. Bush has given five reasons for war: Iraq is an imminent threat to the United States, it has weapons of mass destruction, it has not complied with U.N. resolutions, Hussein has a link to terrorism and the United States wants to liberate the Iraqi people.
If these are causes for war, Rahman said, then the United Nations should go to war with a large number of other countries.
Smith disagreed with Rahman's conclusion. He said that each of those reasons alone might not be enough for war, but the culmination of events is.
"The combination of several of those (reasons) makes a war with Iraq legitimate," Smith said.
Wolfe, a self-proclaimed peace advocate, voiced three concerns about the future consequences of the war. The first was that it could create a humanitarian crisis, leaving Iraqi people and refugees without ample supplies needed to live. The second was that war could turn Hussein into a hero in the Arab world. The third was that war could destabilize the Middle East.
Smith did not speak out against the war but said a formal declaration of war by Congress could have made more Americans at ease with what is happening.
"They would see it as America's war instead of Bush's war," Smith said.
Smith also blamed the sorry state of foreign affairs on the Clinton administration, saying it ignored both Iraq and North Korea.
"They are guilty of dereliction of duty in foreign affairs," Smith said. "They were far too concerned with the impeachment hearing."
Another forum will be held Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. called "After the Invasion: What's next?"
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