Standing in front of a blue sign proclaiming "War is Not the Answer!" speakers addressed a grab-bag of war-related and semi-war-related issues at a teach-in Friday sponsored by the campus group Why War.
At the event, members of Why War announced that they would bring an anti-war statement to be voted on at the Hanover town meeting on May 13.
According to Natalie Allan '06, who organized the event -- titled "Now What?" -- along with Graham Roth '04, the statement will not mention Iraq, but will state that any pre-emptive war is against the principles of the United States.
The two-and-a-half hour teach-in came at a time when coalition forces have already achieved what they proclaimed as their main objective -- the removal of Saddam Hussein's Baath party from power -- and the international anti-war movement is reconsidering its goals and focus.
Whether "Now What?" was meant to be asked of the future of Iraq, or if it was meant of the future of the anti-war movement, few clear-cut answers emerged from the diverse list of speakers.
Still, there remains a small group of dedicated students that continue to organize events like "Now What?" The question is whether popular support will support the events.
At the "What Now?" event, Allan said that attendance began around 40, but by 3:30, an hour and a half into the event, it had dwindled around half that number, including about six members of Why War and five professors, some of whom were also speakers.
Speakers at the teach-in included professors, the College chaplain and a local poet.
History Professor Bruce Nelson addressed the largest crowd, and Ronald Edsforth, director of the war and peace studies program, followed.
English Professor Shelby Grantham talked about unconventional ways to protest the war, citing examples from Poets For Peace to Westerners acting as "human shields" in Palestine.
Her presentation ended with an argument with one of the other speakers over Grantham's efforts to organize a faculty statement against the war.
Upper Valley poet Peter Money read from a poem "America, America" by Iraqi poet Saadi Youssef. "Thank you for having this. I was under the impression this kind of thing didn't happen at Dartmouth," he told the audience.
Physics professor David Montgomery read from a written statement about fundamentalism and led a short discussion.
Chaplain Richard Crocker spoke about the problems of knowledge in the war and the many things we continue not to know about the war -- the number of casualties, where Hussein is, the long-term effects on other Middle Eastern nations, how long coalition forces will occupy Iraq and what kind of government is possible in Iraq.
"Most people in my occupation believe in just-war theory," which requires that the war do more good than harm to be justified, Crocker said. "The question is 'what can we know?'"
