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| Student Senate votes
against war on Iraq |
David Forbes
SGA Beat
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Josh Brown | Chief PhotographerMembers of HCSPJ attended Tuesday
evening’s SGA meeting to show support of an SGA bill approving
actions of the United Nations.
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The Student Government
Association passed a bill Tuesday night calling on the United States
to work with the United Nations (U.N.) on the Iraq conflict.
The bill, which passed 23-17-3, supports the United
States government working with the U.N. Security Council on inspections,
rather than invading Iraq. Copies of the bill will be forwarded
to state and national representatives.
“By acting outside of the U.N., the United
States is acting outside of international law,” off-campus
senator Stephen F. Barker, the author of the bill, said. “We,
the [United States], should lead by example in the international
community and not rewrite the rules.” |
Some senators
objected to the bill’s relevance.
“I have trouble with the irrelevancy of this bill and the increasing
irrelevance of the body,” off-campus senator Aaron M. Whitener
said. “Why do we continue debating issues like this instead
of things that actually affect the students?”
“Who can believe that attacking Iraq will not foment more anti-American
sentiment and more terrorist attacks here at home?” Barker
said. “I think this issue effects Appalachian students pretty
directly, war affects us all, whether it’s as trivial as higher
gas prices or as life-changing as being actually deployed to the
region.”
A group of protestors held up signs in support of the bill in the
back of the room as the debate went on.
“We have more people in this room than we’ve had in a
long time time. I’d like to point out that there were 300 signatures
on a petition on this issue done in the student union,” off-campus
senator Heather A. Robertson said. “That’s a lot more
input than most bills have.”
Other senators strongly objected to the bill’s content, supporting
a United States-led war on Iraq.
“Inspections in Iraq do not work,” John C. McDonald, senator
from Gardner Residence Hall, said. “We’ve seen that for
12 years; we know [Saddam Hussein] has the weapons, even the French
admit he has them. Are we going to let that tyrant, who has killed
more Muslims than any other person on this planet, have his way?
The answer is no, and we’re going to go in and stand up for
what’s right in this world.”
“I don’t like war, I don’t know of anyone who does.
But sometimes its necessary,” Christian H. Greve, senator from
Justice Residence Hall, said. “Nothing’s going to change
without military action.”
However, despite the strong opposition, the majority of senators
ended up supporting the bill.
“The best way for us to support our troops is not to unnecessarily
put them at risk. We’re endorsing pre-emptive attacks illegally,
dividing the international community in a way that’s unprecedented,
and destroying alliances we’ve had for hundreds of years,”
senator Paul A. Funderburk said. “Containment [of Iraq] works
and has worked for the past 12 years. We’re about to start
a cycle of violence.”
“Basically, this war’s coming whether we want it or not,
even though this resolution is kind of irrelevant at this point,
it still supports the U.N. and whether the war comes or not we still
need to stand for peace,” Howard R. Schreiber, senator from
East Residence Hall, said. |
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