Opinion: Students should reject war hawks’ disastrous ideas

In 1970, President Richard Nixon abruptly invaded Cambodia. Tommy Bello, a senior at UNC at the time, was so disgusted by this act that he decided to plan a protest at UNC.

Bello was the University’s student body president, and the action he planned was not small. He called an emergency meeting of the student body and urged students to participate in a mass walkout of class. Professors estimated half the student body chose not to attend class the next day.

This kind of mass protest action seems unimaginable now, and that’s a shame. University students — with access to all kinds of platforms — have unique opportunities to drive conversations in this country about the necessity of the seemingly endless wars in which the U.S. government involves our country, often justified by vague interests in regions half the world away.

As we observe the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we feel compelled to temper our grief by pausing for a moment to challenge those who would still exploit the tragedy of Sept. 11 to argue for endless war in the Middle East.

The lessons of past decades are clear: U.S. military intervention in the Middle East has not only failed to re-create the region to Washington’s liking, but has destabilized the whole area, killed thousands and made terrorism and extremism more virulent than ever before — making Americans less safe, not more.

Despite the clear failures of intervention, campus political groups continue to host and promote events that support endless war.

College Republicans claim to be pro-life and support small government and free markets, but they cheer every new war, support an act that permits spying on Americans and want to funnel billions in taxpayer money out of the private sector and into the government military budget.

Young Democrats were right to be outraged at President George W. Bush’s lies and wars but have been largely silent in recent years as President Barack Obama has bombed seven countries and failed to end U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Reckless intervention in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan destabilized those nations, inspiring extremism and allowing radical Islamism to spread, terrorizing the people of the region.

If the U.S. is to contain and combat radical Islamism, it must understand that the greatest driving force behind violent jihadism is foreign military intervention and the chaos, destruction and resentment it brings. Terror groups have no greater recruiting tool than being able to point to the civilians killed by the West’s bombs or puppet dictators — and then presenting themselves as resisters of imperialism.

With new potential conflicts looming, political organizations on campus remain entrenched in their pro-war biases.

College campuses were once epicenters of anti-war activism. During Vietnam and the Bush administration, youth showed great interest in ending pointless wars. It is our generation fighting them; we are losing our long-standing constitutional protections, and we will inherit the debt piling up from all of these overseas adventures.

As the elites try to foist another war on us in Syria or Iran, students must prepare to organize and protest.