Photo:
Wendy Thoms
Dr. Kim Scipes speaks about "Why is the
United States in Iraq? A U.S. military
veteran wants to know." at PNC's Active
Voices meeting Wednesday evening.
More photos from this shoot
Photo:
by Wendy Thoms
PNC students listen to a speech by Kim
Scipes at PNC's Active Voices meeting
Wednesday evening.
WESTVILLE -- A newly resuscitated campus
group, Active Voices, held a forum at PNC
Wednesday night for students and community
members to listen to multiple perspectives on
the ongoing war in the Middle East.
“It’s not about pros and cons,” said Active
Voices member Carol Wilson, a senior in liberal
studies. “It’s about education.”
The forum hosted more than 50 students,
faculty members and interested community members
to listen to six PNC instructors give personal
reflections on the war.
Kim Scipes, an associate professor of
sociology at PNC, spoke both as a scholar and as
a former Marine Corps sergeant and questioned
the U.S.’s intentions in invading Iraq.
“No, I don’t think that what we’re doing in
Iraq is to benefit the Iraqi people,” he said.
Scipes told forum participants that during
the years before the first Gulf War, Saddam
Hussein was “on the U.S. payroll.” He said while
Hussein was gassing his own people and killing
the Kurds, “he was our boy.”
Scipes questioned whether any perceived
benefits in the war were worth the increasing
loss of life, both military and civilian, U.S.
and Iraqi.
This description was in subtle opposition to
a view of success in Iraq from Sgt. 1st Class
Gary Kinney Jr., who also serves as a PNC police
officer.
Kinney’s description of Dahuk, a city in the
northern province of Kurdistan, was that of a
successful, metropolitan city.
“There’s plenty of electricity, prosperity,”
Kinney said. “There’s cell phones and satellite
television. So why are other provinces not doing
as well?”
Places like Mosul and Baghdad get the
spotlight in the media, he said, since the
successes are much fewer in those areas.
Kinney said Dahuk could be a shining example
of how democracy could take root in Iraq. The
Kurds, while a smaller percentage of Iraqi
citizens, had gone through some difficult times
before and during the first Gulf War, when
American forces promised to defend them against
Hussein’s Iraqi army and then abandoned them.
“The amazing thing is,” Kinney said, “was the
Kurds have forgiven us.”
Kinney also spoke of other ways the Kurds had
not only survived, but thrived, in the years
since the first Gulf War. Their religious
tolerance and success with a free-market society
had strengthened them philosophically and
economically.
“Success in Iraq is possible, although it
will take time,” Kinney said.
The two opposing viewpoints coexisted
peacefully during the presentations and ceded to
audience question-and-answer.
But getting students and community member
talking was the most important thing for the
Active Voices group.
“(The war) has been talked about it’s in the
news, it’s on campus,” said Active Voices
secretary Susan Antoszewski, a December PNC grad
with a bachelor of arts in behavioral sciences.
“But the focus is education.”
