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Classroom on the Quad
Welcome and Introductions
Bruce Knauft, Faculty Council

Jim Grimsley, Faculty Council

Purvi Patel, College Council

Donna Wong, Campus Life

Iraq: The Challenge of Responsibility
Rick Doner, Political Science

Weapons of Mass Destruction and U.S. Foreign Policy
Dan Reiter, Political Science

A Call to Words
Asanka Pathiraja, Foreign Policy Exchange

Hearing in Eqanimity: Deciding Your Path
Bobbi Patterson, Religion

The Necessity of War with Iraq
Bob Bartlett, Political Science

The Humanitarian Cost of War
Laurie Patton, Religion

A Man of Honor: The President's Noble Vision
Daniel Hauck, College Republicans

Women: War and Peace
Lili Baxter, Women's Studies

The Morality of War
James Tarter, Students for War Against Terrorism

Speak Up or Get Out
Erin Harte, Young Democrats

War Does Not Resolve Conflict, War Is Conflict
Mark Goodale, Anthropology

A War of Liberation
Frank Lechner, Sociology

A Call to Consciousness, A Litany of Questions
Juana Clem McGhee, Institute for Comparative and International Studies

Student Activism: Ways to Be Involved
Erik Fyfe and Rachael Spiewak, Emory Peace Coalition

Cross-Cultural Communication: U.S. and Iraq
Devin Stewart, Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies

The U.S. Has Never Been Alone in the World
William Chace, University President

I rise to thank all of those who made this Classroom possible. I thank the speakers, all of them, first; I then thank those whose organizational skills have brought us together: Professor Jim Grimsley of English and Creative Writing, Professor Bruce Knauft of Anthropology, and Ms. Donna Wong of the Office of Multicultural Programs and Services.

We remind ourselves where we are—at a university, a special place reserved for thinking. Hence I encourage you—all of you no matter what you believe with respect to the invasion of Iraq—to think, as hard as you have ever thought about anything, about the world as it has changed in the last six days. For the world in those six days has indeed changed. As William James has one of his characters say at the end of The Wings of the Dove, “We shall never be again as we were.”

We are now learning that no war has been fought as this one will have been fought, for every war is at last defined not only by victory and defeat, but also by the surprises that rise to meet both victor and foe, by the cruel ironies that unroll each passing day, and by the bitterness—not innocent jubilation—that is war’s customary aftertaste.

Think, then, and study hard these things: what men in leadership positions have said before battle of their intentions and their plans and what, in fact, will now ensue as this war rolls on. To move one-quarter of a million armed men and women half-way around the world is bound to reveal infinitely painful surprises that, if you care about your fellow Americans and if you are not fearful of studying the costs of war, you must think about. Think of the great Civil War fought in this country and how everyone got it wrong from the start; think of the war in Vietnam and how, once again, its surprises and horrific ironies give it shape and meaning in our minds.

If you are a champion of this war, do not be afraid to consider other ways its objectives could have been pursued. War must always be the very last resort in human life. If you oppose this war, do not be afraid to consider what the last century revealed: that the dread odor of true evil can rise from the earth, that terrible tyrannies do exist, and that courage must at times come forward to suppress them.
To the students here assembled, think of this day also as one when your classmates stood before to give you the best thoughts of which they were capable, as one when your teachers thought hard about how they could impart to you the best part of their scholarly wisdom, and as one when your university sought to illuminate the future that will be yours. “Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die. And it is youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow, and the triumphs that are the aftermath of war.” An American president said that some sixty years ago about a war that was soon to come to an end. Your war, the war that will define your generation, has just begun. In all its ramifications, it will not soon end. No matter the day when we are told it is over, it will continue to color your lives, your attitude toward your country, and your thoughts about your future.

And you will be prompted by the better angels of your nature to reflect upon the terrible carnage that will be this war’s graphic memory. Many will perish—of every age, men, women and children, the innocent and the culpable. Some deaths will be seared, in their horror, on your memories. Doubtless some of you will know men and women who will have been killed. And these memories will prompt you, as you think and as you dream, about the costs of war, and about the profits of war.

You are here to study. You are here to think. Destiny has thrust upon you a terrible subject on which to apply your best thinking, the finest parts of your minds. No one wanted you to have this be a large part of your legacy. But it is yours and to it you must turn your most serious attention.

I thank you all for being here today for this Classroom.