As the president of the IU College Democrats, I would like to respond to the opinion column “War and Peace” that ran Sept.19 in the IDS. The basis of this piece is that Democrats, on both a national and campus level, are not doing anything proactive to end the war in Iraq, and that some may not even be opposed to it. I can assure you that every member of the College Democrats is in strong opposition and, yes, we are working to end this war. What the article alleged is that a lack of war protests is the benchmark of a lack of passion about ending this war, and this is simply not true. \nThe phrase “foray into public agitation” was used in the article, and public agitation is not one of our organization’s goals. We want to show our staunch resistance to the war through informed and well-grounded action, rather than showy displays of anti-military sentiment. Our counterparts in Washington are working in the same manner to bring us out of this war, but are running into much opposition. Legislation with benchmarks and timetables to begin the redeployment of troops has been passed, and vetoed by Bush. The reality is that the Democrats do not have a veto-proof Congress and cannot override Bush’s veto. \nThough the College Democrats may not be standing at the Sample Gates every evening and our Democratic representatives have not been able to push through much legislation, it is in no way indicative of the work and energy by Democrats that is going into ending this war. Throughout the upcoming year, the College Democrats will be making our voice, and that of all against this war, heard through our work on elections, debates, candidate forums, policy presentations and, who knows, maybe even a war protest.
Anna Strand\nPresident, Indiana University \nCollege Democrats
