Libertarians protest US involvement in Middle East
Political theory and constitu-tional democracy freshman CJ Galdes reads a list of soldiers who died in the recent wars at a protest at the rock on Farm Lane on Monday held by the MSC Libertarians.
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Four thousand seven hundred fifty-eight is a number the Michigan State College Libertarians doesn’t want to see go up — and it’s a number they wish hadn’t gotten so high to begin with.
The amount represents an estimated number of fallen U.S. troops who served overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, said Kolin Karchon, a political science and communication senior who founded the club in August 2010.
The group painted the number on the rock on Farm Lane on Monday, along with its ultimate goal — to “bring ‘em home.”
Karchon and other members of the group spent Monday afternoon protesting at the rock in support of ending the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and deterring any further conflict in Libya, he said.
“A lot of people agree at MSU’s campus that we need to end the war,” Karchon said. “It’s not sustainable economically or (in terms of) life.”
Representatives from the Libertarians read a list of the names of the fallen U.S. soldiers into a megaphone.
The Washington Post’s Faces of the Fallen project cites the number of casualties in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom as higher than 5,800.
The Libertarians also gave away American flags, had a petition available for students to sign in support of changing current U.S. foreign policies and accepted donations for the National Military Family Association, said Bobby Fox, an accounting sophomore and vice president of the group.
Part of the group’s intentions simply was to remind students that the wars still are happening, he said.
“Troops are still dying and we’re spending a ton of money,” Fox said. “If we get a third war (in Libya) — it’s going to be bad.”
The U.S., France and United Kingdom began air strikes against Libya on Saturday near what is considered the opposition stronghold of Benghazi and the capital city of Tripoli. The strikes began after the U.N. Security Council enacted a no-fly zone.
Biomedical laboratory operations sophomore Ben Andress signed the group’s petition Monday because he said many people are not giving the wars overseas the attention they deserve.
“People are ignoring the fact that Americans are still dying over there,” he said.
Karchon said he originally painted the rock Sunday afternoon, but overnight thunderstorms washed away the message. He went back at 2:30 a.m. Monday to repaint it, he said.
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Free Libya
(03/21/11 10:57pm)Report
I guess preventing genocide in Libya isn’t a big issue for Libertarians. It’s not like the people of Libya have been asking for help for over a month while their civilians were murdered by Gaddafi or anything like that.
Sparty
(03/22/11 12:28am)Report
What is happening is Libya, happens all over the world every single day. Is it the responsibility of the United States to intervene (and usually lead the charge) in every single threatening situation?
I am just playing devil’s advocate. However, we are in Libya because of the media attention and the obligation that we now seem to have to oust the oppressive leader and free the people, bringing democracy to the world. If there was 24/7 video from other parts of Africa where armies filled with children carrying weapons murder those that are different from them every day, then there would be a call for intervention as well. Do the other oppressed and innocent in other African countries not deserve our help as well? Is the situation not the same as Libya if not worse? The truth is, the people in this country chooses to turn a blind eye to what else goes on in this world until it becomes the center of national and international media 24/7. When it becomes all you read, hear about, and see, then these same people are the ones who call on this country to intervene.
To: “Free Libya”, you criticize the libertarians becasue they don’t want involvement as genocide is occurring and the Libyan people have been asking for help for a month. There have been people in Africa and all over the world praying for the US to get involved in their country for many, many years. Do we intervene in every oppressed nation?
Again, this happens every single day. I wish that that we had unlimited funding for military and humanitarian aid, and an invincible army, but we don’t and the United States has plenty of their own issues to deal with as well. We have the poor, the hungry, and, in a way, the oppressed etc. And, just as in Libya, we have those in this country who are on the verge of death.
Free Libya
(03/22/11 10:30am)Report
And this all depresses me. I am aware of how bad it is elsewhere and sadly no the United States can not go in and save everyone. But this time we can do it, with an interim government on the ground to support us and no troop deployment, just air cover. I suppose I should mention the reason I was so mad was that walking pat the rock yesterday when I politely declined to sign the petition because of Libya, the young man manning the table asked me how I liked wasting money while I spit on the Constitution, and then shouted something about how the media was lying about the people needing help. I hate war, but I refuse to endorse genocide. I wish more could be done in Africa but it currently can’t, today though something can be done in Libya and it should.
Arafat
(03/22/11 10:47am)Report
Free Libya,
How the hell do you know that we can do it this time?
Anytime we step a foot into a Muslim country we do NOT do it because Muslims don’t want “it”.
Muslim’s prophet, Mohammed, led his people as a tyrant and a theocratic madman, yet he is considered the perfect man according to Islam.
He is “it”. When the US embraces this reality then it/we will understand why we can do nothing to help the Muslim world from going from one despotic leader to the next despotic leader.
Until then your statement that this time is different is nothing more than silliness.
MaximumBob
(03/22/11 11:51am)Report
Genocide?
WTF? Where is the genocide in Libya?
NOWHERE.
It’s an internal issue of control and rebellion.
I guess you figure throwing out the word “genocide” will guarantee some sort of action.
Free Libya
(03/22/11 1:12pm)Report
Arafat once again you ignore Turkey. I am not going to respond to your ignorant racist rants against Islam.
MaximumBob, when a man orders planes to drop bombs on civilian protesters and hires foreign mercenaries to kill his citizens, he is plotting and engaging in genocide.
MaximumBob
(03/22/11 1:33pm)Report
Bullshit.
Like it or not, he’s suppressing an insurrection.
That IS NOT genocide.
Calling it “genocide” is simply a way of getting people to take further notice, whether or not it’s true.
Unfortunately, even REAL genocides don’t get noticed, nowadays.
MSUjunior
(03/22/11 1:37pm)Report
List of countries the US should invade to topple dictators or people who use violence against civilians:
North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, Israel, Jordan, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Congo, Venezuela, Burma, China, and many others.
We are going to need a bigger army to occupy all these brutal countries. We better start conscription again to liberate all these countries…