'Deja vu all over again'

Of course most of us are too young to realize it, but with the eerie sense that history repeats itself, our nation and our country's college campuses are becoming politicized regarding the potential outbreak of war with Iraq. As my parents and I discussed this current conflict I could not help but realize it could be Vietnam all over again.\nIn the early 1960's our leaders stressed the "Domino Theory." Its basic principle was if we let any country fall to Communism the neighboring countries would also be susceptible to communist rule. It sounded so plausible and it is only with the hindsight of 40 years perspective that we can see how absurd that theory was. At that time, we believed in the supreme knowledge of our national leaders and the majority of our country supported military intervention. It was only a decade later, after thousands of lives lost, a president who refused to run for a second term and the mounting opposition to the war within our country, that we finally extricated ourselves in defeat from Vietnam.\nThe current sentiment within our country regarding potential war with Iraq has striking similarities to Vietnam. In both instances it started with a vast groundswell of support for the use of military force and a plausible rationale for the necessity of military intervention; in Vietnam to stop Communism from spreading and in Iraq to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The American's World History Book published "At the commencement of the Vietnam War political surveys estimated that over 85 percent of the people supported military action." Then as now, there is little focus on the repercussions of such action, the length of time armed forces that will be needed -- not to mention the loss of lives from the conflict.\nThe opposition to the war in Vietnam started with small groups of students on college campuses forming the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society). They were ridiculed, vilified as cowards and denounced as unpatriotic. Almost 40 years ago our country became bitterly divided, culminating in thousands of students marching on the Pentagon while our own armed forces killed protesters in a campus not far from here: Kent State. \nOpposition groups are currently being formed. On Oct. 12, The New Jersey Star Ledger stated that "police arrested anti-war protesters ... outside the Phillip Burton Federal Building in San Francisco. They chanted "No war in Iraq." This is a throw back to the slogan in protest against the Vietnam War (and social commentary regarding life in the '60s) "make love not war."\nFor the first time in our lives, college campuses are discussing the potential of a draft and the possibility of numerous casualties.\nJust as the maxim "history repeats itself" has been taught to us, the equally perceptive tenet "we must learn from our mistakes or we are doomed to repeat them" should be in our thoughts as we examine the full ramifications of a potential armed conflict half a world away. \nI have this unsettling thought instead of "March Madness" and "Little 500", that our campus, as others throughout our country, may instead be the site for anti-war, anti-draft and anti-establishment rallies. We would all be wise to view the film clips from almost 40 years ago of nightly news casts of Vietnam with body bags, bombings and campus protests. I fear we are headed down that same path again.