Time for unity
I watched on TV, along with millions of other fellow Americans, as President George W. Bush indicated we were going to war. Regardless of how much I expected this to happen, I found myself feeling anger toward the Bush administration. Many feel he is finishing what his father started and had long decided to go to war with Iraq. I hated to the fact that we were sending troops to a country and putting their civilians at risk.

However, I was hit with some sort of an epiphany. I don’t have to agree with what Bush is doing and his reasons for going to war, but the decision has already been made and we are already at war. Everyone agrees Saddam is a dangerous man and there is no clear way as to how that issue could be resolved. The administration felt war was the best way, and even though I don’t agree with the reasoning, I think in times like this we have to come together as a nation and support our president. Yes, many of us did not vote for him but it does not negate the fact that he is our leader.

In a time like this, I think the nature of the protests we are witnessing is unfortunate. I hope that we can put aside our differences for a few weeks and support the young men and women that are putting their lives on the line for our country. In times of turmoil, the best way to move forward is via a unified front. Disruption is not what out country needs at this point. We can disagree with those in power but that does not mean we cannot support them in time of war.

-Ahmadu Garba, senior

SA hipocrisy
As president of a student group that enriches the GW community, I am disappointed in the hypocrisy the SA recently displayed to my organization regarding our finances.

Due to a family emergency that forced our treasurer to leave the country, she had limited time to pack her bags, let alone organize our midyear budget review, leaving me unable to complete her job during her absence. As a result, we missed the deadline and were not even permitted to hand one in; now we are suffering a 15 percent cut to our already limited funds, despite the fact that the SA is well aware of our predicament.

Interestingly, members of the SA refused to make an exception for our extenuating circumstances because they did not want to “violate their bylaws.” Funny how the SA is sometimes willing to ignore these same rules when it works to their advantage like buying alcohol, but when a situation that merits reconsideration arises, they go by the book.

The SA has repeatedly set an inconsistent and corrupt example for the student body. That being said, they should not penalize student groups for making minor, circumstantial mistakes when they are often committing more serious violations themselves.

-Amy Gabel, Senior

‘This has to stop’
Last Sunday, as we unpacked our bags in New York, California, Cancun and Puerto Rico, Rachel Corrie, an American college student and a peace activist was fatally crushed by an Israeli Defense Force bulldozer on its way to demolish a Palestinian home in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli home demolitions have become the outstanding feature of Israeli control, while Caterpillar bulldozers have become an omnipresent symbol of the occupation. Israel’s “terrorist-cleansing” campaign of bulldozing Palestinian homes with help from American tax dollars and military aid has only strengthened the occupation and inhibited the chances of any type of peace. Since the 1967 Israeli occupation, 9,400 Palestinian homes have been demolished and thousands of families left homeless in direct defiance of the fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits any destruction of personal property by an occupying power.

Letters to the New York Times and the BBC asserted that she would be alive if “she had not been defending terrorists” and “she was not an innocent victim.” Such cold absurdities run low when compared to Daniel Friedman’s cartoon in the University of Maryland student paper, in which Rachel is drawn sitting in front of the Israeli bulldozer, with the definition of “stupidity” sarcastically describing her actions. Despite the brave actions of Rachel, whose commitment to peace and justice led her to Palestine, the home she was trying to protect was that of a physician who was a friend of many International Solidarity Movement activists and whose house at which she often stayed.

As we come back to campus from spring break, we are faced with a new array of international conflicts directly concerning us. We cannot sit idly while our money is being used to fund and sustain Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and the killing that violates American values. Echoing the words of Rachel Corrie, an individual who embodied such values, “This has to stop.”

-Maryam Sarrafee, junior, vice president of Islamic Alliance for Justice