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FAIRFIELD - The war with Iraq is not about freeing an oppressed people, students at a Fairfield University teach-in were told Tuesday.
Neither is it about justice or disarmament or ridding the world of an evil man.
"This war is a defeat for humanity," Melissa Reardon, assistant chaplain at the Jesuit university, told a student center full of students and faculty.
Billed as a program meant to offer an alternative view to what students have heard in the mainstream media, the teach-in sought to offer the Catholic and Jesuit stand on the war.
"Both stand firm in their belief that the decision to use force against Iraq is not morally sound," Reardon said.
The teach-in was sponsored by several university departments and student organizations, including Fairfield Students for Peace, a group that has staged weekly anti-war rallies along the Post Road in Fairfield.
In all, students heard from a dozen speakers over the course of three 90-minute sessions. Each drew 100 or more students and faculty to the atrium of the campus center. Some were there as part of a class assignment. Others happened by. A few wore buttons that read: "Dissent is Patriotic," and "No war for oil."
The Rev. Thomas Regan, an associate professor of philosophy, said the teach-in was not to put out one view but a means to get the discussion started. He called the U.S. involvement in Iraq one of the leading central moral problems of our time.
Some students watching from the balcony, however, called the event decidedly one- sided.
"I think it's a great idea to have a teach-in but they should have more points of view," said Liz Collins, a sophomore from Westchester County, N.Y. "I have family over there. Whether or not you believe in the war, now that we're fighting, I think the best thing to do is press for a quick end."
Others said it's possible to be anti-war and pro-troops. "I'm happy to go to this university today," said Vincent Farisello, a senior from Watertown and former president of Campus Republicans at Fairfield. "I'm happy to see people caring one way or the other."
Ralph Coury, an associate professor of history at Fairfield, told the audience the events of Sept. 11 provided the U.S. with a unique opportunity to "solve its Iraq and Iranian problems and roll back OPEC, all done in a way that is immensely profitable to U.S. oil giants."
Crushing Iraq, he said, also helps the U.S. satisfy Zionist and Christian Right lobbies, deflects attention from economic problems at home and preserves the notion that anyone who messes with the U.S will pay a heavy price.
When one member of the audience challenged Coury for suggesting Israeli influence had anything to do with the war, Coury said it did.
Joy Gordon, an associate professor of philosophy at Fairfield, said the language being used by the Bush administration
calling Saddam Hussein and his regime evil, "makes us blind to what were doing."
She also rejected the comparison some have made of Saddam to Hitler.
David McFadden, a professor of history at Fairfield, said the war has divided the country and divided the U.S. from some of its strongest allies.
"But now, what do we do? We are at war," McFadden said. "Now we have to focus now on the future and reconstruction ... We must put humanitarian issues front and center."
Paul F. Lakeland, a Fairfield professor of religious studies, said to be just, the war must have a just cause, the right intention, a reasonable chance of success. This war is not just, he said.
Collins, watching from above, disagreed. "Whether or not they think [the U.S. is] wrong they can't think [Saddam] is right," she said. "I had family members running for their lives through the streets of New York on Sept. 11. I don't like Bush. I think he's an idiot. But war is happening and protesting is not going to do anything."
Joe DeMarzo, a sophomore from Madison, N.J., agreed. DeMarzo has two friends in the service now and a family member who could be deployed at any time.
"There is so much they're not touching on [that it] is almost hideous," he said.
But Kate Foran, a member of Catholic Worker, an organization that works with the poor, said if you believe killing is wrong, speaking out is not an option.
"Expressing dissent is not a privilege. It's an obligation," she said. "At times like these if they don't have your name, you're not resisting enough."
Ed Feldheim, a Fairfield senior and member of Fairfield Students for Peace, said the teach-in was about raising awareness.
"If you believe we can live in a world without war, let's do something about it If one person in the audience all of a sudden becomes radicalized to act, then today is a successful day."