Predictable Protest
Students for a Democratic Society continue their shameless protests of America's defenders.
Catherine Hickey
November 2006
One of the greatest unintended jokes of the pacifist left is that so-often chanted slogan, “Support our troops: bring them home!” They claim to appreciate and support our military and the soldiers who so bravely serve in it as they call for the cessation of hostilities. Yet, on Thursday, Oct. 5, in our very own Pit, the mask was dropped.
A protest organized by UNC’s newly-formed Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) drew about 35 students, alumni, and town residents to the Pit to carry signs and banners, wield the Iraqi flag, and to protest the Iraq War. But this time there was no pretense of “supporting” our troops; these people were wholeheartedly against them. It quickly became clear that their issue was not simply with the war in Iraq, but with the United States military as a whole.
The first speaker to step up and take the microphone of their makeshift stage was Eric Gardner, UNC-Asheville alumnus and a leader in SDS. He stated it as his purpose to condemn the current military situation of continued aggression “in the strongest possible terms,” calling for not only an immediate withdrawal but also the payment of reparations to the Iraqi people.
His primary intention appeared to be rallying students to action, though precisely what action was unclear, as everyone who could hear him was already participating in a protest. “As students,” said Gardner, “we have a lot to lose” – especially, it seems, if we fail to hold rallies against the military.
Why exactly do we stand to lose so much? According to SDS, it is because, “There is in fact a draft going on right now.” Gardner contrasted the current war with Vietnam in terms of student response. Vietnam created much more student upset and protests because people were afraid they would be drafted.
So what is this supposed “draft” we are under? Gardner called it “a racist draft, a poverty draft.” He spoke of none other than the monetary and educational incentives offered by the United States ROTC. By offering students an opportunity to go to college who could not otherwise afford it, the protestors accused the ROTC of targeting poor people who would not have voluntarily signed up for military service.
Of course, such a protest would not truly be complete if we did not find some way to blame Bush for the problem. His responsibility this time lies in the slashing of financial aid for the impoverished. The upper class is also at fault because the tax money that is paying for the war is not coming out of the pockets of those who would support it.
One brave ROTC cadet-corporal took a stand and displayed more civility and respect than all of his opposition combined. Graduate student Jeff Jackson, a first year UNC law student, stated that while he disagrees with their views, he respects them and their right to speak out. Jackson reminded the protestors that ROTC had in fact benefited many people who had come through its training, providing them with not only the opportunity to attend college but great development in character and leadership. He also asked the protestors not to confuse the warrior with the war and direct their anger at the soldiers or ROTC cadets around them.
“Eighteen-year-olds don’t create foreign policy,” Jackson reminded them, “they execute it.”
The SDS rally continued for roughly an hour, and many other subjects came up as one by one speakers took the microphone. There were demands for an end to U.S. involvement in foreign affairs beyond Iraq, urging a hands-off policy towards Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and others. There were several poems and short stories read as well, with listeners urged to “come to [their] own conclusions.”
And of course it comes as no great shock that we also heard the victim card played. Their organization, speakers said, had been harassed, attacked even, by both campus police and administrators. There had been threats, they told us, of federal action and CIA involvement, as authorities admonished SDS that they had “no right to protest ROTC.”
Naturally in the span of this rally someone also found time to bring up the aggressions between Israel and Lebanon – or as they would refer to it, the war of aggression that Israel launched against Lebanon. That’s right, this wasn’t some sort of response to Lebanese terrorism, but an act of terror on Israel’s part, targeting civilians, women and children. And Lebanon’s fighting forces were not a terrorist group within the nation, but rather the beloved underdogs, a small group of the people facing a huge military giant.
Just to make sure they had all their bases covered, our protestors also brought along a few Sept. 11 conspiracy theorists to speak on our government’s psychological attack for the sake of an American war of expansion. They were followed by a curious character sporting a “V for Vendetta” costume and (naturally) comparing U.S. soldiers to Nazis and Bush to Hitler. It seems even at their strangest, liberals manage to be oddly predictable.