Tech students are apparently as divided as the nation about the war in Iraq, which this month moved into its four year with no end in sight. National polls show 60 percent majority taking issue with the president’s defending the war. This is a body blow to President George W. Bush, who has staked his whole legacy on the war. An informal Tech Talk interview on the subject shows both sides of the issue.

In the article “Three years later, still at war” (March 23, 2006) students and professors expressed their opinions about the war in Iraq.

“I feel worse than ever about it because so much more information is available about our mistakes, what we have done and what we have failed to do,” Christina Linza, a senior speech major, said. “The troops need to stay there because we need to finish what we started. We certainly could have done a whole lot better.”

Other students feel the cause of the war is sufficient reason to be in Iraq.

“It’s necessary for us to be over there if we’re going to bring democracy to Iraq,” Liz Guy, a freshman biology major, said.

Many students, however, do not feel they know enough information on the war to comment, but have faith in the leaders of our country.

“The public isn’t being sufficiently informed of our progress in Iraq,” Shannon Dowling, a junior political science major, said. “I have faith in our country and our president, that he will make the right decisions in the best interest of our country.”

Richard Hutchinson, an assistant professor of sociology, said it is difficult to be optimistic when it comes to the war in Iraq.

“Good progress has been made, but also terrible things have happened, most of which was completely unanticipated by the administration that launched the war,” Hutchinson said. “Their was a series of good things that happened such as the development of the constitution and the national election, but at the same time the insurgency has continued to grow stronger.”

Hutchinson said there are a lot of negative trends happening in Iraq.

“The  goal was to liberate Iraq, and they would live happily ever after with a nice stable democracy, but nothing vaguely like that has happened,” Hutchinson said.

What we all can agree on is that the troops have done a magnificent job in the field, in perhaps the most difficult war in our history. All our prayers are with them, and that they can all come home soon.