Teacher/student war correspondence (April 2003)
At the outbreak of the war, I received this e-mail from one of my students:
Dear Professoressa Giacomazzi, I am writing to you about the war, which began just two days ago. The day they announced that the war had begun, our school took to the streets like thousands of other people in Turin and millions of other people in the world. Unfortunately, as usual, I had to refuse to participate because I think such demonstrations are useless. The war has begun and neither Europe nor the rest of the world can change the minds of George Bush or Saddam Hussein. These two men took it upon themselves to make a decision that puts the lives of thousands if not millins of innocent people in danger. They acted as judges, deciding the fates of entire nations. Neither the opposition in Italy nor the opposition of other populations can change the mind of the man that the Americans call their president. Demonstration after demonstration will do nothing to change what has already been decided. All I can say is, the nightmare has become a reality: the war has begun and it won’t finish until Bush and Saddam decide otherwise. Thanks for your attention. I’d appreciate an answer from you as soon as possible. See you in class. Signed.
To my student: I think you are very wise to realize that street demonstrations are useless and that as far as students are concerned, all they do is subtract precious time from your studies, time that you’ll never be able to recover. Besides, it’s only by studying, particularly the study of history, that one can truly understand what is happening in the world without preconceptions and factiousness. However, I don’t agree with the way you put Bush and Saddam Hussein on the same level, and evidently the Iraqis don’t agree with you either. Five minutes ago I saw two reports on CNN: One, Iraqi soldiers who had walked 100 kilometers in order to surrender were smiling and saying “Bush is good. Bush is good.” The other: at a refugee camp, a member of a humanitarian organization tells a reporter that the Iraqis who arrive there say that they’re not afraid of the American bombs, but of Saddam who uses them as human shields putting weapons around their cities and villages to attract the American bombers and to cause a massacre that would be on the conscience of the Americans. CNN doesn’t convince you? You think they might be biased? Then look at the photographs in the Italian newspapers this morning: Iraqi soldiers surrendering, hugging and kissing the American soldiers and asking them what took them so long, “We’ve been waiting so long for you to come.” If you watch the news reports you’ll see how the Americans have invested millions in arms that are able to hit with a precision that no one had ever even dreamed of. It is clear that enormous efforts are being made to destroy as little infrastructure and kill as few civilians and soldiers as is humanly possible. Saddam, on the other hand, burns his oil fields and uses his population as human shields. I’ll let you decide if you really think that you can put the two men on the same scale. We’ll discuss the situation further in class. Have a good weekend.
Sandra Giovanna Giacomazzi writes for the Roman daily, L'Opinione della Libertà. She was awarded the Mario Soldati Prize for Journalism and Criticism for 2002. She also teaches Law and Economics at the Liceo Europeo Umberto I in Turin, Italy.
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