In the shadow of President George W. Bush's intense push for war with Iraq, a group of prominent panelists convened Thursday afternoon to discuss dissent against the policies and actions of the American government in the post-Sept. 11 world.
Grant Farred, general editor of the South Atlantic Quarterly, convened the panel in the Griffith Film Theater to voice issues brought up in "Dissent from the Homeland: Essays after September 11th." The special issue of the journal was published by Duke University Press and co-edited by Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe professor of theological ethics, and Frank Lentricchia, professor of literature.
The panel, composed of contributors to the issue, touched on a diverse range of topics toward the current political environment, but Hauerwas set the tone early on.
"The war on terrorism is not a war. There was a criminal act. You send police to deal with criminals, not B-52s," he said.
Hauerwas went on to say that the initial sadness of the situation has been lost, and that Americans have begun to dehumanize it, beset by what he called "inability to imagine the lives of the terrorists."
Other panelists stressed the growing concerns toward the over-commercialization of American patriotism. Susan Willis, associate professor of literature, displayed a fold out American flag printed in The Herald-Sun of Durham and promptly turned it around to reveal a backside filled with Labor Day ads.
Speakers also added that the American government was attempting to sell the war on terrorism as if it were a commercial product.
John Milbank, Francis Ball professor of philosophical theology at the University of Virginia, noted that there exists a chasm between public opinion in Europe and America. The rest of the world is less likely to accept America's justifications of war, he said, pointing out that British Prime Minister Tony Blair faces sharp criticism over his support of America on the Iraq issue. Milbank also added that Bush has ignored other world leaders' opinions.
"The Pope didn't think this was a just war, [but] the entire American hierarchy overwrote this," he said.
Last year's war in Afghanistan as well as the possible one with Iraq also sparked discussion. Many times, panelists made references to the McCarthy era of the 1950s showing analogs of mass paranoia, eroding civil liberties and blind nationalism.
"The government is intentionally bringing us into a fear mentality and perhaps this strategy is necessary to keep down our civil liberties," Raleigh civil litigation attorney Anne Slifkin said, regarding several recent stories of people being falsely accused or hindered due to hysterical attitudes toward terrorism.
One specific example Slifkin used was the case of three Middle Eastern medical interns who were arrested and lost their jobs because a waitress overheard one say, "How much would it cost to bring it down?" The statement was in reference to a car that one wanted to ship down from Kansas.
The panel ended with a questions session when most audience members voiced various criticisms of American policies. About 75 people'Äîincluding many Durham residents and graduate students'Äîattended the event, and most said they were pleased with the discourse.
"I was glad to see [the panel] didn't have a uniform view," political science graduate student Krista Wiegand said afterward.
Madaline Keros, a student in the Divinity School, said she was encouraged by the panel. "I came away with a feeling like there are more people questioning policies than I thought there would be.... [The panel showed] you can be critical without being anti-American."
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