Posted by
Dana Andjus on Saturday, August 19, 2006 11:04:30 AM
Below is letter sent from 27 University of Texas professors recently. That only represents about 1% of the faculty but where is the other 99% standing up. It's like the Muslims in this country, enjoying freedom and liberty, not protesting the terrorists actions. At some point you appear to agree with them or are too afraid to stand up and be counted. Fortunately through our history, from the Founding Fathers forward, we have had heros made of better stuff. Anyway back to the professors. I no longer wonder why the football and basketball coaches make all the money on campus. They think for themselves.
We write to you out of growing dismay about the escalation of violence by Israel in Lebanon, which with U.S. military and political support threatens to spread into Syria and to engulf the region. As educators we are compelled to remind you of a fact of which you are well aware of the thousands of Americans in Beirut, several hundred are U.S. students studying in Beirut who have been evacuated. However, our concern extends to our students, former students, and colleagues who remain in Lebanon and Palestine/Israel, indeed to all the citizens of these countries, because they are from the region and have no place else to go. Daily bombing raids continue, increasing the death toll of children and other civilians, civilian infrastructure (including the airport) has been destroyed by the Israeli army with U.S. munitions, and the refugee crisis inside Lebanon is so severe that many are without food and water. There is no doubt that the scale of Israeli military response to Hezbollah military activities is unjustified and disproportionate.
At all times - especially in times of war and conflict - University faculty, and those of us in area studies, and international studies in particular, have a special obligation to protest U.S. foreign policy when it endangers the educational mission of the University. Unconditional U.S. support for Israel at this moment not only endangers the lives of our students, colleagues, Lebanese, Palestinian and Israeli civilians, but undermines the purpose of training students to do international work that can contribute to greater cross-cultural understanding and respect, and equipping them to become the next generation of leaders in international relations. Not only this, but we firmly believe that the social, political and economic costs of an unprovoked and illegal war in Iraq, coupled with U.S. support for Israel at this time only serves to isolate the United States in the court of world opinion and is not in the long-term interests of the people of the United States. We call for the U.S. government to suspend arms shipments to Israel, to call for an immediate cease-fire and to participate in an internationally brokered settlement arrived at by all parties at the negotiating table that is not pre-determined by the greater military strength of one party over another.