Students, Panel Discuss the War in Afghanistan

Students at Pierce College in Woodland Hills who wanted definitive responses to their questions on Afghanistan received few answers Tuesday during a campus teach-in on the U.S. war on terrorism.

Instead, a panel of professors gave them more questions to ponder along with advice to critically evaluate the military, the media and their own ethics.

“The idea that we can win the war against terrorism is a lie,” said political science instructor Joe Meyer. “I think we fight battles every day against terrorism, but we can’t win.”

Meyer, the moderator and most outspoken among the panelists, told more than 300 students gathered at the San Fernando Valley campus to keep vigilance over their liberties and to take note of the government’s wartime rhetoric.

“Some terrorists in the past weren’t terrorists,” he said, referring to the Taliban, which received U.S. support in its war against the former Soviet Union. “They were our buddies. They were freedom fighters.”

The teach-in, like similar events on campuses throughout the region, also reflected a growing interest among students and the general public in Middle Eastern politics and religion.

“I know we can’t help but respond,” said freshman Ron Johnson of Canoga Park. “But I still want to know more about the people we’re bombing. Why did they want to kill Americans and what is everybody else going to think about us bombing them?”

The battle centers on a difference in values, said history professor Kassem Nabulsi, a naturalized American citizen of Palestinian lineage born in Israel. Professor Betty Odello added that the attacks caused many in the U.S. to question their own values, which had been unclear before the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

A number of students wanted to know what the experts thought would be the best way to win the war. But the panel had no answers. They said people should accept that there may be no best solution, only varied solutions.

“We shed more light than heat,” said history professor Norm Levy. “That is always the goal of higher education, to get people to think more critically.”