Metro pro-peace club a
response to Iraq threat

By Brian Keithline
The Metropolitan

A group of anti-war Metro students organized in January when it appeared that the United States might attack Iraq for its refusal to allow United Nations officials to probe various weapon-making sites for biological and nuclear weapons.

Though the threat of an air strike has since been subdued by an agreement between the U.N. and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, the students decided to form a permanent pro-peace group on campus, Students Tired of Oppression.

The group staged a ãteach inä March 2 about political issues surrounding the Middle East.
Peace advocate Byron Plumley of the American Friends Service Committee said he is worried the United States would go to war to justify military spending and test new weapons.

Byrom also said he was glad to see that other people support what he thought were ãunpopular views.ä
Tension still lingers in the Middle East although a plan to bomb Iraq has been averted.

Metro graduateand former student government president Safa Suleiman, who represented the Arab American Youth of Denver, argued that U.N. sanctions against Iraq are letting itâs citizens starve.

Others spoke of the anti-American sentiment that is growing in the Middle East.

Kaveh Hashemi, a Metro student and member of STOp, grew up in Iran during its war with Iraq.

He remembered running to the basement during bomb raids and hearing people on the streets chant, ãDeath to the United States.ä

But Hashemi refuted claims that criticism of the United States is only the result of political struggles between America and the Middle East.

Robert Prince, a Metro anthropology professor and faculty sponsor of STOp, said some of the hostility against the states springs from its value of democracy and human rights.