New Haven Independent

As two anti-war contingents gathered on opposite sides of the Green, five New Haven high school students had a chance to express their views about President Obama’s announcement Tuesday night that’s he’s sending 30,000 more troops Afghanistan. (Click here and here for Independent D.C. coverage on the topic this week.)

The high school students — three from Hillhouse, two from Wilbur Cross — stood across from a protest against the war Wednesday afternoon in front of the federal courthouse. The protest was held by a range of groups, including Connecticut United for Peace and the Middle East Crisis Committee. They were joined by a smaller group that met on Elm and Temple Streets, organized by the New Haven Peace Council, for a total of about 50 people.

The students, three of whom are members of the Junior ROTC military training program, all agreed that Obama is a good president who inherited a mess in Afghanistan and lots of other messes from the previous administration. Then their opinions diverged.

Carter, who’s 17 and attends Hillhouse, took the view that the U.S. must defeat al Qaeda and the Taliban “over there” so they can’t wreak more havoc on U.S. soil. “It [the war] is necessary because that’s the only way to protect us,” he said. Sitting next to him, Lopez, who’s 16 and goes to Cross, disagreed. “I think war is stupid. We’re all equal people and we should not have to go through people suffering and dying and more people getting traumatized so we can get a lower price for oil.”

Their friends, Marki Benton from Cross and Eddie Diaz from Hillhouse (pictured left to right), both 16, were somewhere in the middle. They think maybe the additional troops in Afghanistan are necessary, but they question Obama’s announcement of a deadline to start bringing the troops home, 18 months hence, saying that’s like tipping off the enemy.

Carter, Diaz and another friend who was with them all belong to Junior ROTC at Hillhouse. They wear uniforms, practice military drills, and earn ranks. (Click here for a previous story.) Lopez said she was a member when she went to Hillhouse, but now she goes to Cross, which doesn’t offer the program. She said she wouldn’t join now even if it did.

All three young men said they’re seriously considering joining the military after graduation “to pay for college.” They said military recruiters come to both their schools, but not any groups advocating peaceful solutions to conflicts.

At the rally, Henry Lowendorf, of the peace council, noted that Congress must authorize the money to fulfill Obama’s request for more troops, and he urged members not to do so. Click here for a message New Haven Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro sent out after Obama’s speech, in which she expresses pessimism that America can succeed militarily in Afghanistan, especially at the expense of domestic programs that have been devastated by funding cuts.

Lowendorf said the peace council never supported a military response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, but instead called for an international police response to track down Osama bin Laden and the others involved. He dismissed Obama’s pledge that the U.S. is not interested in occupying Afghanistan, but just in training the Afghans to take over their own defense. “They [U.S. leaders] want control of that territory to lay an oil pipeline” through the region, he charged.

Hilary Opperman (pictured) said she came out to protest because she opposes the troop surge on both economic and moral grounds.

“It costs $1 million per troop when that money could be diverted for better things like health care. And it does nothing to end terrorism — it breeds more terrorism,” she said. She added that she’d like a full-time job but so far has found just part-time work substitute teaching and being a figure model.

Another speaker at the rally, Stanley Heller of the Middle East Crisis Committee, noted that the U.S. ally in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai, has been accused of running one of the most corrupt regimes in the world. “And the Afghan people don’t want us there,” he added.