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Issue date: 8/22/07 Section: Cover stories

Media Credit Marie De Jesus
During ongoing protests Luci Murphy sings in front of the Capitol in Washington D.C.

Just before taking a five-week summer vacation, the U.S. Senate failed to muster the 60 votes necessary to set a troop withdrawal timetable for Iraq within 120 days.

This came on the heels of a report in mid-July showing that the Iraqi government is failing to meet its benchmarks for progress. Moreover, recent polls show continuing unrest for the war.

In a conflict that has claimed the lives of more than 3,600 U.S. soldiers and approximately 70,000 Iraqi civilians, the latest polls show that most Americans feel we are not moving in the right direction. A New York Times/CBS News survey shows three-quarters believe the war is going "very badly" or "somewhat badly." Only 3 percent of those polled said the war was going "very well."

The Iraqi government itself seems to be getting impatient, according to a recent AP report. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says he has "full confidence" that Iraqi police and soldiers will take full responsibility for the nation's security and that American troops can "withdraw anytime they want."

Shiite lawmaker Hassan al-Suneid compared the situation to an "experiment in an American laboratory judging whether we succeed or fail."

Restlessness over reports
Adding to the public's concern is an annual report on global terrorism that the State Department released this summer. According to that report, terrorist attacks worldwide - not including those inflicted on American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan - have increased by 30 percent over 2005. Deaths resulting from terrorist incidents have grown by 6,000.

A new government threat assessment, reported by the Associated Press concludes that "Al-Qaeda has rebuilt its operating capability to a level not seen since the summer of 2001." The report confirms Al-Qaeda has regrouped along the unprotected Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

One of the major arguments posed by the Bush administration is that Iraq is an important front on the war of terror. Statistics contradicting that assessment anger the war's detractors.

"The war on Iraq hasn't made any progress at all, if anything terrorism has become more of a problem," said DBCC student Harrison Miller, a history major.

Dire Consequences on withdrawal?

Many others, however, are arguing that a quick withdrawal of troops could be detrimental to the burgeoning democracy , as well as the entire region.

Army National Guard Sergeant William Frailey served two tours in Iraq. He said regardless of the questions about how we got into the war, we can't just leave now.

"We kicked up a hornet's nest when we took out Sadaam," said the Daytona Beach resident. "You can't go into a country, basically explode it, and then say 'Oh, okay, we're done.'"

Overall, he's pessimistic about the picture.

"Considering you've got a civil war that, in some ways, has been going on for a thousand years, the amount of money and resources it would take to flood the country with enough soldiers to make it stable would be more than anybody would be willing to pay."

Protests Continue in different forms
Meanwhile, protests continue both here and abroad. Locally, you will find a handful of anti-war demonstrators at the intersection of Williamson and Granada in Ormond every Saturday morning. More demonstrations are also held periodically at the intersection of Nova and LPGA in Daytona. Also, on the first and third Saturday of every month a larger group gathers at the east end of the Plaza de la Constitucion, in downtown St Augustine.

A massive demonstration is planned in Washington D.C. on Sept. 15. It is being timed to correspond with the status report that will given to Congress by General Petraeus on that day. This event will be sponsored by ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism.)

The favorite tool by this generation's anti-war protestors, however, has been the Internet. Countless Web sites and blogs are dedicated to the movement. Such sites do everything from keeping a running tally of the money spent and civilians killed or injured by the war, to providing open forums to disgruntled citizens across the country.




Media Credit Scotty Holcomb

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