Student Groups Join to Protest Five Years of Iraq War

At both the figurative and literal center of this week’s anti-war efforts are two figures standing atop the College Walk sundial, with one sounding a hand-held gong as another reads off the names of the dead in Iraq.

While the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War in March came and went with little on-campus attention, student groups are now working to turn the spotlight back on the American presence in Iraq with a week of anti-war action intended to spark community discussion.

The effort, dubbed “5 Years of Occupation—5 Days of Action,” is the end-product of two months of planning from several student groups, including the Columbia Coalition Against the War, Students for Justice in the Middle East, the College Democrats, and Lucha. The ad-hoc campus coalition has planned a week of events including a teach-in, documentary and panel discussions, a walkout Thursday, and a final “Mourn-In,” which will take place on Low Steps Friday afternoon.

The centerpiece of the effort—the reading of the names of the American soldiers and Iraqi citizens killed during the five years since the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003—will continue all week, with numerous participants serving rotating shifts on the sundial on College Walk from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day.

Darryl Wilkinson, a second-year Graduate School of Arts and Sciences student who helped organize the event, said the name reading was intended to mark the hundreds of thousands of deaths in a “civil” manner, and bring the efforts of those who died—both Iraqi and American—to the literal forefront.

“We wanted to create a dialogue on campus about the human cost of the war in Iraq,” Wilkinson said. “One of the key things we were trying to get at was the scale of the deaths involved.”

College Democrats media director Jonathan Backer, CC ’10, said the fifth anniversary of the invasion was “a time for deeper thinking.”

But some wonder if the reading of the names of the dead sends an inappropriate message. Brian Quillen, CC ’11, said he felt such a reading was an act usually reserved for a memorial service, and that the protesters were “sending the message the war, in and of itself, is a crime.”

“They seem to ignore and not really acknowledge any justification for the war in Iraq,” Quillen said.

But perhaps the most controversial activity planned is the one scheduled for Tuesday on Low Plaza. There, the College Democrats will wash American flags in a symbolic gesture of cleansing the blood supporters believe has been illegitimately spilled in the war.

“They are free to criticize the war and the country,” College Republicans President Chris Kulawik, CC ’08, said, “But I don’t need 20-year-old College Democrats telling me that my flag is so disgusting that they need to wash it down.” He said of the name reading, “I respect that far more.”

Kulawik emphasized that he did not speak on behalf of all campus Republicans.

Elizabeth Feldmeier, CC ’09 and a cadet in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program, said she was neutral on the week of action.

“A soldier always prays for peace,” Feldmeier said, quoting a traditional adage. But she added that it seemed most of the participants in the events “weren’t members of the Columbia community.”

Despite the criticism, Backer emphasized that the goal of the week was to open discussion, not shut it down.

“The point of this is to have a dialogue,” Backer said.

Sarah Husk contributed to this article.

alix.pianin@columbiaspectator.com