Students: U.S. 'Had It Coming'; 'It Is Our Fault'

by Dan Flynn

As the nation reacted with grief and anger over the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, many on campus blamed America and said that the United States deserved the carnage.

"Anyone who would blow up the Pentagon would get my vote," declared University of New Mexico Professor Richard Berthold. San Francisco State student Roberto Ochoa opined, "we should be asking what we did to deserve this." A University of Colorado student maintained, "we had it coming."

Campus memorial events for the victims of the tragedies quickly turned into anti-American political rallies. Anti-war protests broke out on 150 campuses, with many of the demonstrations focusing on the death penalty, NATO, the WTO, and other issues unrelated to the attacks. Several universities initially reacted to the tragedy by banning patriotic displays, such as flying the American flag.

Although nationwide polls show more than 90% of Americans supporting the President and a military response, the reaction on campus has been quite different.

Rallying Round the Flag

While storefronts and homes across the country displayed American flags in the wake of the tragedy, Old Glory was unwelcome on many campuses.

At Marquette, undergraduates were blocked from holding a moment of silence around an American flag. The gesture, the school's president and advisors felt, might be "offensive" to foreign students. "[The administration] felt that it showed too much nationalism or patriotism in respect to foreign students," College Republican President Lonny Leitner said. "We wanted to gather around that symbol and express our sorrow."

At Lehigh, the vice provost for student affairs initially reacted to the tragedy by banning the display of the American flag. News of his decision led to outrage, which quickly forced a reversal of policy. "We have such a diverse student body and emotions are so high right now," a Lehigh spokesman explained. "The idea was to keep from offending some of our students, and maybe the result was much to the contrary."

While many students opted to fly the flag from their dormitory windows, others objected to such patriotic expressions.

Duke University's Kathryn Duke wrote that in light of the likely American military response, "the sight of the flag burning would be preferable to its display across America." Jessica Stillman of Rutgers University objected to the placement of a print of an American flag in an issue of the school's student newspaper, The Daily Targum. "The publication of an American flag within the pages of the paper shows blind support for this country and its policies, and limits those un-patriotic voices, which should be heard, even in this time of tragedy," she maintained.

At Berkeley, students wore green armbands to show solidarity with Arabs and followers of Islam. While the armbands didn't provoke controversy, the American flag did. The city's fire department was ordered to remove American flags from its trucks because of fear that student anti-war protestors might vandalize the vehicles. For some University of Wisconsin demonstrators, their idea of patriotism was to sing Iraqi songs. Two Swarthmore College students who expressed support for military action were shouted down by peace activists at an outdoor rally.

America to Blame?

Anti-American professors saw the tragedy as an opportunity to invoke alleged misdeeds by the United States and rail against the West.

Professor Robert Jensen of the University of Houston pronounced, "my primary anger is directed at the leaders of this country." The attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center are "no more despicable than the massive acts of terrorism-the deliberate killing of civilians for political purposes-that the U.S. government has committed in my lifetime." We are "just as guilty," he concluded.

American University Professor Peter Kuznick used his history course to blame the United States for the attacks and intimated that an American conspiracy was at work. Kuznick, who teaches a class on Oliver Stone's view of history, told his class, "this is very convenient, the Pentagon needs an enemy, and now they have one. Very convenient that such opportunistic things happen." Kuznick then turned the class over to a number of critics of the United States. Berkeley Professor Peter Dale Scott telephonically imparted to the students, "what goes around comes around" and defended the terrorists by proclaiming, "they aren't cowards, if nothing else, it surely isn't cowardly to ride the plane in for something you believe."

Some students echoed the anti-American sentiments of faculty and administrators.

Lisa Mann of Wake Forest University wrote, "I do not feel as though the 'safety' of Americans has been affected. It took these terrorists years to plan the kind of destruction we have wreaked on other countries in a matter of days to weeks. That is right; America is not a 'nice' country." Her article in the school's student newspaper, The Old Gold and Black, posited, "We are kidding ourselves in thinking we have been 'wronged,'" adding, "sometimes it is our fault."

Columbia University Freshman Ethan Heitner, living on the other side of Manhattan island, characterized the attack on the World Trade Center as "retaliation" against the U.S. for our policies on Israel and Iraq. "We should consider this our reward for meddling with other countries," he argued. Closer to ground zero at NYU, student Nuno Andrade cited "global oppression and exploitation" as the reason for the mass-murder. "As long as the United States continues to act as an autonomous entity to ensure the quality of life of Americans at the expense of those in other countries, one cannot be surprised when terrorist attacks such as the ones of Sept. 11 occur."

Activists blasting America crashed vigils for the dead at Berkeley, the University of Michigan, and Chico State in California. At the latter school, students were so outraged by the anti-American tirade of a political science professor that he felt compelled to leave the memorial after issuing his harangue. Professor George Wright declared that President Bush seeks to "kill innocent people" in the Middle East and then "colonize" the Arab world to seize oil "for the Bush family." Angry students responded that they had gathered to pray for the victims, not to hear political speeches.

"We should be ashamed we didn't expect this," West Virginia University's Joshua Greene wrote. "We rape the world's resources and sponsor the rape of her people, and we pretend we are safe." Greene advised his readers to pray for the people of Iraq and warned that terrorism will continue "until we begin to take responsibility for causes."

Others offered relativistic or pacifist responses. An "ideal community," claimed Columbia University philosophy major George Melillo, would mourn "indiscriminately the loss of all human lives, terrorist and civilian." UC-Berkeley student Teddy Miller suggested dropping food and electronic goods on Afghanistan instead of bombs. The Daily Californian columnist wrote, "bomb Afghanistan with butter. Feed those starving masses copious amounts of food. Give them radios and newspapers so they can participate in civil society…. Throwing this curveball at the terrorists will take them by surprise."

A Positive Response

While the vocal critics of America stood out on campus, not everyone reacted with such venom toward the United States.

Blood drives were held at numerous schools, with overflow lines at Penn State and UMass forcing organizers to turn some away. Administrators at the Universities of Pennsylvania and Minnesota, among scores of other schools, canceled classes in response to the tragedies. Service organizations and fraternities and sororities raised money for the victims of the attacks. Shows of solidarity with Arab-American and Islamic students could be found in nearly all student newspapers. Vigils for the dead were held at hundreds of schools. Displays of patriotism, even at institutions like the University of Wisconsin and the University of Michigan, were evident, with flags hung from dormitory windows.