One look at Peter Kirchheimer’s resume can tell you how he feels about the war in Iraq: Columbia University in the 1960s. Students for a Democratic Society. Peace Corps in the 1970s. Public defender in New York City.
Kirchheimer bases his opinion that the war was wrong on historical precedent and personal experience.
“You don’t go around invading places because you don’t like their leader,” he said.
As a member of SDS at Columbia, he protested against the Vietnam War. He was also around when SDS coined rallying cries: “Make love, not war” and “Hell no, we won’t go!” He was there for the draft-card burnings, the disruptions of ROTC classes, the sit-ins at university buildings and the boycott of classes that shut down the university.
His stance was only strengthened during his years in the Peace Corps in Chile from 1969 to 1971. Close friends were killed on Sept. 11, 1973, he said, in the coup that toppled President Salvador Allende. Kirchheimer is convinced of some degree of U.S. cooperation.
He uses Chile as an example of the results of foreign meddling. Augusto Pinochet emerged as dictator after the 1973 coup and later faced charges of extensive human-rights abuses.
“Something has to replace even the worst regime, or you’ll have anarchy,” Kirchheimer said. “And we may find that, in the end, we’ve replaced Saddam Hussein with a regime that is just as bad or even worse.”
–Kirsten Scharnberg
`I absolutely support’ the war
A lifelong New Yorker, Joanne Marsalisi doesn’t mince words when asked about her feelings on the Iraq war. “I absolutely support it,” the Bronx native says simply. “Absolutely.”
Marsalisi has the image of the burning twin towers firmly in her mind’s eye when she discusses foreign policy in Iraq, along with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the damaged USS Cole and American Embassies under attack in Africa.
“All of these things happened before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” she said. “It makes no sense to me, this argument that if we weren’t in either place no one would have any ax to grind with the United States.”
As for Iraq’s alleged weapons?
“I don’t know a single person who disputes that Saddam gassed the Kurds,” said Marsalisi, 46. “He had weapons, and I suspect that we either haven’t found them yet or he used up what he had, knowing he could quickly and easily generate more. I find it inconceivable that he just woke up one morning and destroyed his WMD because he suddenly wanted to be a good guy.”
In the days leading up to the one-year anniversary of the war, Marsalisi found herself feeling the fear and apprehension that seem to come with every major holiday or anniversary in New York since Sept. 11.
“As key dates approach, you live with the fear,” she said.
“These are scary times.”
–Kirsten Scharnberg
