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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

At long last, the liberation of Iraq is under way.

This liberation is part of a larger struggle for freedom, a struggle that can unite war opponents and supporters.

Everyone who values freedom welcomes the end of Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime, which itself turned into a weapon of mass destruction as it fed people into shredders, tortured Olympic athletes, raped women in front of their husbands, gassed the Kurds, polluted the Gulf, devastated Kuwait, and killed more Muslims than any other in history.

As they gain freedom from fear, of Saddam and of us, Iraqis will soon have a chance to build a more liberal society with a more decent government. Many say it cannot be done. They say that Iraq is too violent and too divided, that Arabs are not fit for democracy. Maybe so. But with our help, Iraqis can prove the contempt of the cynics wrong, by turning the Republic of Fear into a beacon of hope.

For the Middle East, the liberation of Iraq must be the beginning of a larger transformation. For too long, the region has been shackled by political oppression and religious obsessions. It has turned a history of failure into the politics of resentment. No wonder that some expect a “clash of civilizations,” as if “they” are all fundamentalist Muslims arrayed against a godless West, trying to slay the Great Satan. Doesn’t 9/11 prove their point? Doesn’t this war intensify the clash? No. The liberation of Iraq is a pre-emptive strike in the supposed clash of civilizations. It shows that there is no future in fundamentalism, and that there is no unbridgeable gulf between “them” and “us.” It assumes that Muslims, too, aspire to freedom.

In the aftermath of war, let us make common cause with Iranian students protesting clerical rule, with Saudi women who want to drive to go shopping, with Egyptian sociologists advocating human rights, with Palestinian teenagers who wish to study math rather than terror.

But, you might ask, how can an illegitimate, costly, imperial, unjust war promote freedom?

Only approval from the Security Council, you might claim, can make American action “legitimate.” Yet when the Council, no liberal institution, subverts its own disarmament demands, when France and Russia abuse their position to contain America rather than achieve collective security, the legitimacy of the Council itself is in question. Legitimacy does not flow from the approval of adversaries but from the purposes America pursues. The cause of freedom justifies itself.

War creates a “quagmire,” a “humanitarian disaster,” and “blowback,” say other worried opponents. With all due respect, we’ve heard that before. Such expectations were wrong in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan, and they are wrong yet again -- unless Saddam commits still more war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Instead of making war, say dovish experts, we should “deter” and “contain.” But deterrence is second-best to defeating a dictator, and rather than consign Iraqis to the cruelty of containment, we should fight for their freedom.

But don’t we defeat ourselves, you might object, if in the guise of liberation we actually build an “empire”? If this is empire, it’s empire lite, one that sets up former foes, like Germany and Japan, as rivals, ships humanitarian aid before a war is over, and is eager to go home once that is done. No, George Bush is not Julius Caesar with JDAMs. In fact, the danger is not that Uncle Sam will take control; the danger is that Yankee will go home too soon.

Some well-known advocates of human rights have claimed that this is not a “just war.” Yet after years of sanctions and inspections and resolutions, this is a carefully tailored last resort. If we ask how we can free Iraq, if we ask the right question, then war is the answer.
Some are seduced by the wishful thought that the alternative to war is “peace.” As long as a dictator tortures and murders his subjects, we can have no peace. In Iraq, real peace will come not with a wave of my daughter’s Harry Potter wand, but from the pain of a hard-fought war and the flourishing of a free society.

The liberation of Iraq liberates America and the world from the fear of Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction. But Iraq has not attacked us, you might say, why should we attack it? The very possession of terror weapons by outlaw regimes constitutes a threat. Any response to their use comes too late. As long as tools of terror are in the hands of tyrants, no one can be truly free. Kim Jong Il, take note.

The struggle for freedom requires that America, with its allies, seek security in change, serving its interests by advancing its values, using force, if necessary, as prelude to creating more liberal societies, the only basis for a lasting peace.

Iraq is just the beginning. The struggle will be long and hard.
But freedom, for others and for us, is worth it.