North Dakota State University devoid of anti-war activity

This was a column I ran across -

I spend much time on the North Dakota State University campus. I am continually amazed at the total lack of an anti-war movement. No organizations, demonstrations, posters, fliers, nothing. I am repeatedly told this is due to a lack of a military draft. This is difficult to accept. Young Americans have no idealism whatsoever? They are here to get an education, a step into a six-digit income, nothing more.

NDSU devoid of anti-war activity

Michael Ross
Hawley, Minn.
Opinion - 10/13/2007

I spend much time on the North Dakota State University campus. I am continually amazed at the total lack of an anti-war movement. No organizations, demonstrations, posters, fliers, nothing. I am repeatedly told this is due to a lack of a military draft. This is difficult to accept. Young Americans have no idealism whatsoever? They are here to get an education, a step into a six-digit income, nothing more.

Driving by First Lutheran Church last Saturday night, I came upon 200 high school students sleeping out in cardboard boxes. This was to raise money and collect food for homeless shelters and raise awareness of homelessness in America.

Are these two a microcosm of the paradox that is America? We consider ourselves a virtuous people but show callous indifference to the indescribable suffering we have inflicted on defenseless Iraqis. A few stats and some simple math illustrate my point:

There are an estimated 2 million homeless in America (about half of 1 percent). We have spent $460 billion on the Iraq war thus far. This could have built a $200,000 home for each homeless individual. And what is the return on these billions? Since this is about homelessness, not mass-murder, we will leave aside the 1.2 million dead Iraqis the latest study estimates. The Iraq war has displaced (made homeless) 4 million (16 percent) Iraqi civilians. It has left Iraq’s power grid in shambles and destroyed waste and water treatment facilities. A cholera epidemic has started in the north and threatens to engulf the entire country. The transportation infrastructure is also in ruins, making it difficult to get medical supplies where they are needed. Making matters worse, many Iraqi doctors and nurses have fled the country.

Our young people cannot speak to these issues for fear of not “supporting the troops.” How many must die or become homeless and hungry so our troops feel “supported”? Perhaps we can support the troops by letting them come home and get on with their lives and become productive and not destructive. And perhaps our clergy and educators can teach genuine compassion and not politically correct exercises in futility.