More than 600 students filled the Owen L. Coon Forum on Thursday with intermittent applause and nervous conversation as conservative author and political activist Ann Coulter spoke on the war in Iraq, liberals and racial profiling.
“The war has been a magnificent success,” said Coulter, author of bestsellers “Slander” and “High Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
“Liberals carp about every bombing,” Coulter said. “We’re not liberating Ohio here. After we won the war in 17 days flat, with amazingly few casualties, they complained about some museum pottery being broken.”
Coulter said liberals should look at their own policies before constantly questioning the justification and duration of the U.S. occupation.
“How about the left’s war on poverty?” Coulter asked “When are we getting an exit strategy on that? When are we getting out of that quagmire?”
Another major topic for Coulter was the role of racial profiling in fighting terrorism. She brought up the accusations that Bush had prior knowledge of Sept. 11, 2001, and said if he had prior knowledge, racial profiling of Arab-looking men by the airline industry was the only precaution available. She listed a series of attacks on U.S. citizens and interests perpetrated by Muslims since 1979 and complained about policies that require airlines to search toddlers and elderly women for weapons, while allowing men of Middle Eastern descent to fly unchecked.
“When there’s a 100 percent chance, it ceases to be a profile — it becomes a suspect description,” Coulter said. “They all have the same hair color, eye color. They’re all males. Half of them have the name Muhammad.”
During the question and answer period after her speech, Coulter clarified that she only supports profiling in extreme cases but still believes it needs to be implemented for airline security.
On topics other than Iraq, Coulter said she expects a Bush victory in 2004.
“I do not think any of the Democrats prove a threat to George Bush,” Coulter said. “When the nation is under attack, you have to have a Republican in the White House. I don’t think Clinton would have been elected during the Cold War. The wall had fallen, the nation was feeling fat and happy, they thought, ‘OK, we’ll put this horny hick in the White House.'”
Some audience members said they were shocked by Coulter’s comments on the role of religion in relation to the war on terror as well as U.S. government and society.
“This is a religious war, not against Islam but for Christianity, for a Christian nation,” Coulter said. “When this nation was founded, there was nothing like it. Our founders said there is a God and we are all equal before God. The ideal of equality and tolerance is like nothing that has ever existed in the world before. That, too, is a Christian value. The concept of equality, especially when it comes to gender equality, was not invented by Gloria Steinem — it was invented by Jesus Christ. As long as people look long enough, they will always come to Christianity.”
Opinions on the speech were mixed.
“Ann Coulter makes some interesting and some valid points,” said John Sisk, a Medill senior. “The problem is she undermines her credibility by going too far. She makes Republicans look like nut jobs.”
Henry Bowles, vice president of College Republicans, a sponsor of the event, said he was impressed by Coulter’s performance.
“I thought it could not have gone better, honestly,” said Bowles, a Medill sophomore and Daily advertising representative. “I’ve never seen a speaker care more. Every person who asked a question from an opposing viewpoint walked away having heard a great answer. She wasn’t evasive or anything. She galvanized conservatives and presented an interesting and legitimate view to liberals.”
