Three Northwestern professors spoke out Tuesday night against the impending war in Iraq, citing potentially massive human casualties and a lack of ethical justification.

About 50 students and professors convened in a classroom at the Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary for “A Dialogue on Ethics and War in Iraq.”

The event was sponsored by the Center for Ethics and Values and was moderated by Ken Vaux, a Garrett professor and co-founder of the group.

The professors outlined the potential effects of a war against Iraq, viable alternatives to war, and the moral and ethical foundations for those alternatives.

“There is no divergence between ethics and interests,” said NU political science Prof. Karen Alter, who opened the dialogue by discussing the criteria needed to justify war.

Alter called the conflict with Iraq a “preventative war” and said such a war is ethically justified if the group being attacked has a clear intent to do harm.

The Bush administration has used two tactics to persuade Americans that war is the right choice, Alter said. The president has tried to link Iraq to terrorism and to convince the American public that “Saddam Hussein is evil,” she said.

After Alter spoke, philosophy and African studies Prof. Souleymane Bachir Diagne talked about how his native country, Senegal, has a large Muslim population that was opposed to the Gulf War.

The fact that millions of Muslims there opposed Hussein’s actions meant that the Iraqi leader couldn’t justify his attack as a holy war, Diagne said. He went on to suggest that the United Nations should do more to prevent such military conflicts.

NU Law School Prof. Douglas Cassel emphasized the potential high costs of a war with Iraq — particularly in terms of human life.

“This is not going to be another Teflon war,” Cassel said, referring to the Gulf War, which saw minimal U.S. casualties.

Unlike that war, Cassel said, ground troops would likely be deployed in Iraq this time, possibly resulting in thousands of casualties. Instead of war, Cassel suggested the U.S. use diplomacy to contain the Iraqi threat.

After the professors spoke, Vaux opened the floor for audience questions.

“Why haven’t we had outpouring from the religious community if this is such an unjust war?” asked Scott Lang, assistant director for NU’s Slavic Languages and Literature department.

“The church has spoken out,” Garrett student Vincent Lane replied. “The church is not in support of the war.”

Weinberg sophomore Kathleen Ho said the dialogue reinforced her own opinions.

“I had been opposed to (the war), and I remain opposed to it,” she said. “This basically confirmed my beliefs.”