Student Revolution, March 20: Why We Did It

The Costs of War on Education and Why We Must Voice Our Dissent

We’re here today, not because we’re mad at our schools, (in fact, they’re some of the establishments most affected by this war), but because we realize that we aren’t being taught what we need in order to end this occupation, and so have learned that we must educate ourselves if we want to make a difference. Another goal for today is to reinvigorate the student anti-war movement, and demonstrate through struggle the immense power that we can have as a mass of students.
In recent years, it seems student activism has died down. Although the sentiment’s still there—kids still think we shouldn’t be in Iraq—we just seem to have come to terms with the idea that as students, we can’t make any difference on U.S. policy. So go join a Facebook group proclaiming your views. “1 Million Against the War in Iraq.” “No More War.” But lord knows actually doing something won’t make a difference, so why bother?
I know that in the past I, and probably many of you, have felt isolated in this frustration about what our country has been doing in the “name of democracy.” But look around you now. And just see how many other people your age feel the same way. What we need to do is act together to put forward a booming anti-war voice that can be heard across the country that will not only inspire other students to voice their dissent, and act upon it, but hopefully inspire adults as well, and eventually get the entire country up in arms about what is being done in our name, and with our tax dollars, so that we can not be ignored.

So going back to how our schools have been horribly affected by this war: let me illustrate for you the reason why many public schools suffer from budget cuts, and less and less teachers, and larger classes… you know the jist. According to the Congressional Research Office, looking at the Federal Discretionary Budget, whereas the United States spends between 57 and 60 percent of its budget on the military, only around 8 percent of this budget is spent on education, training, and social services combined! That’s about one tenth as much, being spend on education. So that means that the reason there isn’t the funding for teachers to make a decent wage, or to have classes of less than 30 people, or to have full-fledged music programs in our schools, is because that money is going towards building up weapons and destroying another country. What a good deal for everybody.

Another way to look at it is if you think about just how much we are spending on this war. According to Nobel Prize-winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, the Iraq war has cost us more than $1 trillion in just the first four years. In the time it will take me to say this sentence, $250,000 will have been spent on the Iraq war. That’s $720 million every day. Do you know what $720 million dollars could pay for in just one day? To all you seniors out there, that number represents 34,904 four-year scholarships for university students. Paid in one day. But it also could fund 12,478 elementary school teachers. Or 84 entire new elementary schools. Over 1 million free school lunches, paid in one single day. But instead of these good causes, it’s being used to ruin the lives of Iraqis.

Not only are we putting our own education in a tight squeeze, but we have made it nearly impossible for Iraqis (and Syrians) to get an education at all. It’s hardly safe for Iraqis to leave their homes, let alone go to school, and with the amount of refugees fleeing to Syria as well as Jordan, Egypt, Iran, and Lebanon, (about 2.5 million total) each of these countries’ own school systems are becoming more and more crunched as they accumulate more and more students with no additional funds.

You may still think that protesting won’t make any difference. But if you look back 40 years, in the Vietnam war, it was only after repeated years of enormous protests, some with half-a-million people, that the GIs finally felt the courage from the support of their country, to revolt against what they were being forced to do. We need to show the troops that though we support them, we do not support what our government is telling them to do. Only once they see that their country—their friends, parents, brothers and sisters—do not agree with what they are doing, will they gain the will and strength to fight back.

This is why we need to step up the action.

It doesn’t work to just focus all your energy into an election and be done. We can’t leave these crucial decisions about what we do or do not do in other countries in the hands of a few people at the top. We have to keep fighting for what we know is right and just, and make sure that our elected officials stand up to what they promise us. We have to demand that troops leave Iraq. This is not a war. There is no Iraqi army that we are legitimately fighting against. This is an occupation. And you can’t win an occupation. You just have to leave.

We have to start an ongoing discussion, and educate ourselves about the side of the war that is not told in common media. I urge you to talk with you friends, talk with your parents, make Iraq a common topic for discussion. We have to educate ourselves and spread the truth so that more people will feel a need for something to be done, if we want this war to end in the near future.