After months of speculation, dozens of protests and a United Nations resolution, the world will have to wait only 48 more hours to see if the United States will go to war with Iraq.

President George W. Bush addressed the nation Monday night and gave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his sons two days to leave Iraq. If Hussein does not comply, the United States will use military force to remove the Iraqi leader from power. This action will not be done with the consent of the United Nations Security Council.

Mehrzad Boroujerdi,a political science professor, said he was not surprised by what the president said during his speech but does not agree with the war or some of the comments Bush made during his speech. The U.N. is considered to be the embodiment of world opinion, and the Security Council has not approved this action, so some of the president’s statements about intervention being a last resort are not necessarily true, Boroujerdi said.

‘I do not believe that every measure has been taken in four-and-a-half months of diplomacy,’ he said.

Political science professor Melvyn Levitsky agreed that it seems as though war is inevitable unless Hussein has a sudden change of heart, which is not likely to happen, but thinks the Bush administration initially did a good job diplomatically with the drafting of U.N. resolution 1441, which gave Iraq one more chance to turn over any weapons of mass destruction and threatened the use of force as an alternative.

‘The vote was unanimous, including the Arab representative to the Security Council, Syria, and included strong language like, ‘one final opportunity’ and ‘material breach,’ ‘ Levitsky said. ‘But, we couldn’t get others on board for some automatic trigger for the use of force.’

Syracuse University students have varying opinions about whether the United States should go to war and what the ramifications of a war would be.

Michael Stepan, a sophomore psychology major, said he feels the only way to get a regime change in Iraq is through military action.

‘We have been giving Hussein deadlines for a while now,’ Stepan said. ‘Enough is enough. Either he needs to get rid of weapons or leave.’

Ronnie Hirshberg, a sophomore public relations major, does not think anything positive will come out of a war with Iraq and feels that President Bush is not listening to citizens in the United States who are divided about whether to go to war or not.

The division that Hirshberg sees in the United States is evident, even on the SU campus.

Another aspect of the war being considered is what will happen after the war is over. This includes both the possibilities of terrorists attacks and what it means to U.S. allies. Boroujerdi is afraid that a war with Iraq will bring about strong anti-American feelings in the region, and harm relations with allies that do not believe in the war, such as France and Russia.

‘Bush used language like ‘we have resolve and fortitude’ and the others do not,’ said Boroujerdi. ‘That will not sit well.’

Boroujerdi and Levitsky agree that setting up a regime after Hussein is removed from power will be a challenge for the United States and the United Nations. Levitsky said the threat of terrorism that could come from no action should also be considered, as Hussein could work in conjunction with a terrorist organization to bring a weapon of mass destruction into the United States.

The ‘anything that can happen’ is what scares Hirshberg.

‘I feel like terrorism is inevitable, and it feels like there will be repercussions to war,’ she said.

Published on March 17, 2003 at 12:00 pm