The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

Plans made to protest war

Kristina Herrndobler

Daily Egyptian

As black suitcases filled with a 12,000-page arms declaration arrived at the United Nations headquarters on Saturday ˜ a day ahead of deadline ˜ President Bush continued to speculate about the accuracy of the declaration.

Despite Iraq's compliance with U.N. demands thus far, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said, "there's skepticism and there's fear" about Saddam Hussein's nuclear ambitions.

But Hugh Muldoon, director of the Interfaith Center and co-coordinator of the teach-in series that has been trying to educate and persuade SIUC students and community members about the conflict between the U. S. government and Iraq, says he is fearful of what might happen if the United States does declare a war on Iraq.

"This is a life and death situation," Muldoon said. "There is so much at stake here ˜ if we go to war with Iraq, our world is just not going to be the same."

Because he and other members of the Committee Against War believe that a preemptive attack against Iraq would be a terrible mistake resulting in mass deaths, they have sponsored a series of teach-ins about the United States' position on the conflict in the Middle East.

After three well attended teach-ins, the committee will be continuing the series next semester.

The first session is scheduled at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 16 at an undecided location. Speakers Father Joseph Brown, director of Black American Studies, and Randy Auxier, assistant professor of philosophy, will address "The Real Martin Luther King Jr. and War with Iraq."

Subsequent teach-ins will look at "Women in War," "Faith In War: Religious Perspectives on Iraq," "Non-Violent Resistance to War with Iraq," and "War comes to the University."

The dates for all of the events have not yet been set.

The day after the teach-in based on Martin Luther King Jr. and his views on war, the Committee Against War and others interested will be leaving for Washington, D.C. to protest the U.S. government declaring war on Iraq.

The committee is in the process of planning the trip to Washington, which will involve a protest against the War in Iraq. International A.N.S.W.E.R.S. is organizing the protest and tens of thousands are expected to attend. The last protest, which took place in October, involved 200,000 people including several SIUC students.

This time, the Committee Against War is hoping for SIUC to have an even bigger voice in Washington during the weekend of protests.

With that in mind, they are planning to charter at least one bus to the event. They are collecting donations to help pay for the trip and believe the trip could be done at less than $100 a person. The committee invites anyone interested in attending the trip or making a contribution to help sponsor the trip to contact Muldoon at 549-7387.

Reporter Kristina Herrndobler can be reached at kherrndobler@dailyegyptian.com

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