By Joseph Zuniga
Students and faculty held an overwhelmingly negative opinion of the ongoing US attacks on Iran.
On Feb 28, the US launched a massive military campaign against Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Since then, there has been a regional conflict involving the surrounding countries.
An anonymous poll the Dominican Star conducted on Fizz recorded a response of 91% of students against the war, with 589 votes, and a 9% of students in favor of the war, with 55 votes.
Political Science Professor Patrick Homan comes from a family background with pacifist values and believes that war, in general, provides little to no benefit.
“I can’t think of a war in my lifetime that was good.”
Homan states that some past wars may have had good intentions, but wars often don’t yield good outcomes.
This war is no different for Homan, as he is against it and the events that have taken place. He believes the killing of the Ayatollah was a bad decision that could lead to unforeseen consequences.
“Is it ever good to kill a world leader? It’s a very nasty precedent,” he said. “I mean, there’s been other examples in (our) lifetime with ‘bad’ leaders being killed. When has it (led to) good results for people?”
Graduate student Pilar Navarro states she is anti-war and believes the United States should not be involved in the Middle East.
“I’m not for any type of war or any larger first-world country infringing their power and rights onto non-first-world countries, especially in Southwest Asia”.
Navarro believes that the best course of action for the US is not to just back out of the war, but to also offer reparations.
“We shouldn’t have even gotten into the war, but I would hope that would be met with some type of goal or mission to fix the errors we made.”
Sophomore Janeli Davila notes the lives lost in the conflict and discredits the actions of the current presidential administration.
“It’s terrible. People should not be dying from the actions of the president. I think (Trump) is doing an absolutely terrible job… but you know, some people voted for him, so now we’re just dealing with the repercussions of that.”
Senior Elian Figueroa believes American citizens gain nothing from the war.
“The working class is not benefiting at all from this war.”
Figueroa brought up how the average American will have an increase in their cost of living with the increase in gas prices. About 20% of the world’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz daily, and the war has disrupted the strait, leading to a low supply of oil.
Junior Nico Droira also expressed how the war affects his life economically, involving gas prices.
“It’s affecting us, at least in my experience, through gas prices. It’s going to increase the cost of living a lot more in general.”
Figueroa believes that Iran should have been left alone.
“I would rather have (Iran) figure itself out because I’ve seen in the past where the US intervenes with different countries and what happens after, like what we did in Iraq and Venezuela. I think we just need to worry about ourselves and they need to worry about themselves.”
Homan credits students learning about current issues and urges students and Americans to continue to question these events and why they happen.
“I think asking questions is the most important thing for young people and Americans in general. Why are we doing this? Who’s benefiting? What’s the cost? I don’t think people do enough questioning in today’s world. We’re lost in disinformation and social media echo chambers.”
Be the first to comment