The UCSD College Republicans commemorated the one-year anniversary of U.S. forces securing Baghdad, Iraq, on Library Walk on April 9. Their commemorative information booth was themed “Perseverance and Perspective in Iraq.”
Behind the booth was a display of small Iraqi flags representing grave markers to demonstrate the number of deaths that occurred under President Saddam Hussein, according to College Republican members. Each flag served as a memorial for 5,000 Iraqi deaths of an overall 400,000 to 500,000 deaths, according to College Republican members. Members claimed that this statistic is “conservative and deflated” and that the actual number of deaths is closer to one million.
“The bottom line is that we want to show awareness, a different perspective, but most of all, the facts,” said Adam Richards, College Republicans vice chair internal.
One of the themes of the display was the perseverance of U.S. presence in Iraq.
“We’re in support for perseverance, and we support the Iraqis,” College Republicans secretary Patrick Todd said. “We’re just trying to remind people why [U.S. troops] are there.”
Members said that they were not supporting the war itself through the event, and that their main goal was to commemorate the Iraqis who have died and to encourage awareness of the significance of the “fall of Baghdad.”
“We’re not trying to represent the Iraqi people; we just want to show the tyrannical rule that the Iraqis are free from,” College Republicans member Jessica Tarman said.
Members stressed that they felt it was important to show a different view of U.S. involvement than those protesting the war on the anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.
“Every death has a price,” Chris Fennell, press secretary of College Republicans, said. “We need to show what we’re there for, and now would be the worst time to pull out. It would be a waste to say, ‘We’re done now.’”
Some passersby held differing opinions to the College Republicans’ message. Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services language and writing coordinator Cecilia Ubilla, who is also one of the founding members of the Committee for World Democracy, said that support for staying in Iraq is “outrageous and inaccurate.”
“It’s causing deaths. The longer the United States stays there, the more people will die,” Ubilla said. “I think it’s good that Saddam Hussein is not there, but who has given the United States the right?”
Others expressed that the College Republicans and all organizations alike have the right to provide any sort of information or opinion.
“Everybody has the right to express their opinions, as long as it’s in a way to keep it nonoffensive,” Eleanor Roosevelt College freshman Eliza Hoyos said.
