Iraq

Freedoms, human rights, democracy are the foundations of this nation. The American people must remain vigilant throughout these assaults on the flag in the Iraq War.

It is an ironic emblem of war that it is often the living who are forgotten. Perhaps even more harrowing than the numbers of dead are the numbers of displaced.

On April 21 to 25, a broad coalition of students has set aside a week for us to call into question our own complicity and to commemorate the passing of five years of occupation in Iraq. Regardless of how we respond, it seems to us that none of us can allow this call to go unheeded.

Over the last two weeks, the presidential race finally returned to Iraq.

Regardless of the legitimacy of going to war, or its subsequent conduct, I believe that every American should be able to agree that a geopolitically stable Iraq and Middle East is in America’s best interest.

If I were ever shot in the arm, I might scream from the pain—hopefully in a pitch deeper than the voice of a kindergartner on helium. I would probably cry, despite myself.

According to the Nov. 28 edition of Spectator, Hamid Al-Bayati, the Iraqi Ambassador to the United Nations, claimed in his recent speech at Columbia that “the vast majority of the Iraqi people will be grateful” for the United States invasion of Iraq, and that Iraqis are “jubilant” about the U.S.’ role.

A few weeks ago I traveled all the way to JFK just to get a glimpse of Saida and Hassan’s first few minutes in America.

Flight 200 arrived at 12 p.m. last Tuesday at John F. Kennedy International Airport. After our first two hours of anxiously waiting with welcome signs in Arabic that drew suspicious glances from around the terminal, we went into the office and asked if it was possible that any passengers from the flight remained in immigration.

Iraq was an ingenious experiment in colonial design: piece together the eastern flank of the defeated Ottoman Empire, import a Hashemite Arab to rule over a collection of tribes and cities, and preserve British and Western interests under the rule of a friendly local government.