Classroom on the Quad

Opening Remarks

By Bruce Knauft, Samuel C. Dobbs Professor of Anthropology


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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

 

Thank you all for coming; I'd like to welcome you to Emory's Classroom on the Quad. Our gathering has been planned by a combined group of students, faculty, and staff, with encouragement by President Chace, Provost Hunter, the University Faculty Council and various deans—all of whose support we gratefully acknowledge. I'd like to begin by introducing the other memebers of our program committee:

• Jim Grimsley, Director of Emory's Creative writing program and Co-Chair of the University Faculty Council's Sub-committee on Academic Freedom and Student Affairs

• Purvi Patel, Outgoing President of the College Council

• Chris Richardson, Outgoing President of the Student Government Association

• and Donna Wong from Campus Life; Donna is Associate Director of Multicultural Programs and Services

I am Bruce Knauft, faculty in anthropology and co-chair of the Faculty Council Sub-Committee on Academic Freedom and Student Affairs.

Our focus today is "U.S. and Iraq: Many Voices." Before introductions, we want to review basic facts. Eleven years ago, after the end of the first Gulf War, certain members of the past and present Bush Administrations proposed that preemptive military strikes were appropriate against recalcitrant countries such as Iraq that may be harboring chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons. Today this is known as the Bush doctrine. Following the attacks of September 11 and the subsequent U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. government increased pressure for military intervention in Iraq. The exact extent of Iraqi weapons programs is greatly disputed, and the U.S. was unsuccessful in its attempt to receive endorsement for military action from the United Nations Security Council.

Over 150,000 U.S. and British troops are now fighting a war with Iraq. The goals of this war are to kill or capture Saddam Hussein and his two sons, to change the political regime, to find and destroy any weapons of mass destruction, and, it is said, to construct a workable democracy. The U.S. has bombed many targets, especially in Baghdad, and invaded the country with the most technologically advanced air and ground attack in world history. After initial U.S. successes, Iraqi defense and rearguard action have been stiffer than many expected. U.S. and British troops have sustained about one hundred and fifty casualties, including some forty soldiers killed in combat. About a dozen Americans have been taken as POWs and shown on Iraqi TV. Iraqi casualty rates are undoubtedly much higher, including civilians, and over thirty-five hundred Iraqis have been taken prisoner or surrendered. U.S. ground units have now advanced to within sixty miles of Baghdad, and a major battle for the city is expected after southern Iraq is secured. Baghdad is a capital of slightly over four and a half million people, which gives it roughly the same size and urban spread as metropolitan Atlanta.