A teach-in on war organized by a group of Evanston Township High School students might have missed its mark Monday.
ETHS student group Youth for Social Action invited nine speakers — including Northwestern political science Prof. Ian Hurd — to share a diverse set of opinions about the war with Iraq during the teach-in, entitled “War, Occupation, Racism and Attacks on Civil Liberties.”
But the event’s format — one speaker per class period — made some organizers worry the students were presented with biased views.
During the first 20 minutes of each 43-minute class period, the speakers presented and held discussions with students. Speakers included Hurd, DePaul University international studies program director Michael McIntyre, an army sergeant, a group of Vietnam War veterans opposing the war with Iraq and a representative from political group Voices in the Wilderness.
“The one-period format for each speaker makes the entire thing kind of biased, but in different directions,” said ETHS student Danielle Strandburg-Peshkin, 17.
About 1,300 students attended, and more wanted to come, but the room could not accommodate more people, said David Feeley, an applied science and technology teacher who helped organize the event with other teachers and Youth for Social Action.
“The teachers kind of realize it’s our responsibility to provide balanced education about those issues,” Feeley said.
Hurd spoke about the three phases of the war with Iraq: diplomacy, military intervention and civic reconstruction.
Hurd was asked why he thought the United States chose to fight Iraq and how he expected officials to handle Syria, Iran and North Korea in the future.
“North Korea is like the Michael Jackson of international politics,” Hurd said. “Perhaps a danger to children, but you’re not really sure.”
Hurd described Iraq as “boring,” and said the Bush administration knew there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, so attacking it was not very dangerous to U.S. security.
He also said he expected the war to have long-term effects.
“I think we might well see a domino effect of miliary interventions in the Middle East,” Hurd said.
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