Tech students are still supporting United States Armed Forces in Iraq, but questions were consistently raised about the length and even cause of the war in the Middle East in an informal Tech Talk poll.

The Tech Talk news editors conducted a poll of 30 students, who were asked overall opinions and whether students were for or against the war. The following quotes are indicative of some students’ opinions:

• “I’m not really knowledgeable on the matter either way, but if fighting in Iraq is a justifiable way to get rid of terrorism, then I’m for it.”

• “The war in Iraq is all about oil and resources. I support our troops, but we shouldn’t still be fighting.”

• “I feel like we’ve been over there too long, but Iraq is a massive project. I wouldn’t say we should leave because there’s still terrorism and [there’s] still not order.”

After beginning the war in Iraq with an invasion to bring down Saddam Hussein in March 2003, we find that today the state of war remains a bloody mess. Estimates of tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed. In June, the Pentagon cited the U.S. military death toll in the Iraq war as having reached 2,500, according to a www.msnbc.com news article.

Furthermore, 18,490 American troops are numbered as wounded, with injuries including loss of limb or paralysis. Even troops not harmed physically no doubt suffer from emotional impacts of war. The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, an agency based in Washington, D.C., estimates that the monthly U.S. expenditure in 2006 for the war could hit $8 billion. This monthly estimate does not even include the additional costs of British deployment in Iraq. All the while, the United States remains locked in a struggle of steadfast insurgency.

Over the years the government has maintained various reasons for the invasion and occupation in Iraq. Hussein’s regime was believed to have ties with Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, to have harbored weapons of mass destruction, to have failed to comply with United Nations’ requirements of accounting for these weapons and to have offered no cooperation during inspections. None of these reasons for going to the war have come true.

More recently U.S. deployment in Iraq has been for the formation of a healthy, self-sustaining democratic government in the Middle East.

Student opinion at Tech varies from full, partial, to zero support for American involvement in the war, with an emphasis on support of troops and government in their attempt to secure safety for U.S. citizens.

When some are left wondering what happened to the moral anchor of our nation to neutrality and peace, others argue it is through temporary bloodshed that our nation will prosper.

The most disturbing aspect of The Tech Talk poll was that most Tech students knew or cared so little about what has been called the “War of Civilizations.”