The first in a series of debates between the College Republicans and Democrats took place Wednesday over the justifiability of the war in Iraq. The Campus Center face-off, though at times heated, was generally characterized by a spirit of cooperation and civility.
“I thought it was an excellent debate, and it brought up very good issues on both sides,” said speech professor Helen Acosta. “I thought the students did an excellent job.”
Republican Secretary Vince Pierucci led things off for his party by vigorously attacking the United Nations and making the case for a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. He was countered by Democrat Vice President Mike Gutierrez, who reminded Pierucci of President Bush’s admission that there was no known link between the two and then hammered away at the idea that access to oil was the real reason for the war.
“The United States has set herself up like a junkie trying to get a quick fix,” he said, adding that “it was painfully obvious that (Saddam) did not have weapons of mass destruction.”
Mike Alesso then took the podium to make an impassioned case for democracy in Iraq, arguing that this was the main reason for the war.
“Democracy is a human right,” he said, adding that “democracy brings freedom, tyranny brings terror.”
He was careful to distinguish between Islamic fundamentalism — which he said could produce the same kind of tyranny seen under Saddam — from Islam itself, which he said “is not incompatible with democracy.”
There was a tense moment when two apparently Muslim students confronted Alesso over what at least one perceived as an attack on Islam.
One of them shouted “You don’t know anything about my religion” before walking off.
The other, 19-year-old Bakersfield College student Amadou Baba Tamboura, stayed to question Alesso about the failure of the U.S. to intervene in Chechnya, where Russia often has brutally suppressed a separatist movement.
Tamboura sought to make clear a distinction between Islam and extremism he felt Alesso had muddled.
“Islam is compatible with democracy in all cases,” Tamboura said. “Extremism is not compatible with democracy at all. We have to make the difference.”
At the end, the four club members on the stage took one prewritten question each that previously had been dropped in a comment box just outside the Fireside Room.
The highly partisan queries ranged from “Do you think the people of Iraq are better off under Saddam Hussein?” to “Given the United States’ past human rights violations and unauthorized bombings, what moral authority does America have to police the world?”
The debate ended with both clubs joining together to thank the audience, remind students of the importance of civility and make it clear that neither sought to attack Islam or in any way hint that the Iraq war was a religious conflict.
Jason Ellertson, a 26-year-old nursing student, disagreed.
“The Muslim community have already announced that they have waged a holy war against Christianity, and we are not directly answering that to avoid such a war. Do I agree with avoiding the war? Yes, but it might be a necessary evil that we have to address later on.”