Gulf War still in dispute one year later

One year ago today, President George Bush gave an order and the Gulf War began. The war lasted only six weeks, with the United States claiming a decisive victory. But for some, the fight rages on. Act For Peace, an organization formed when Bush mobilized U.S. troops for Operation Desert Shield, is staging a vigil at 4:30 p.m. today by the clothespin statue at 15th and Market streets. According to Act For Peace Staff Coordinator David Gibson, the organization is demanding the lifting of U.N. sanctions against Iraq currently in effect. "Unless sanctions are dropped. . . up to 170,000 children under five years of age will die, " vigil organizer David Mailen said in a statement. Act For Peace also continues to question Bush's handling of the gulf crisis, Gibson said. "We saw the war as part of a foreign policy . . . that has gotten out of control," he said. "We want to see priorities in this country rearranged." Gibson said Act For Peace wants Bush to spend less on national defense and more on education and aid to the homeless. Gibson also said the peace movement ignored the Middle East for too long. He contends that organizations like Act For Peace "definitely could have prevented a military response [by Bush in the Persian Gulf]." But Adam Garfinkle, resident scholar at the University's Foreign Policy Research Institute, said the war was warranted. "Clearly if the U.S. had not gone to war . . . everything would be worse," Garfinkle said. According to Garfinkle, if there had been no war, Iraq would have a nuclear bomb and oil prices would have risen dramatically. "It would have been disaster," he said. Political Science professor Ian Lustick said while the war was successful in liberating Kuwait, the victory may have exposed the U.S. to new problems. Foreign countries may now expect the U.S. to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict and the nuclear weapons problem as well, he said. This country is "assuming many burdens that we may regret in the future," Lustick said. "I'm worried about the U.S. being exploited by other nations."