It felt like a 1960s anti-war rally, but it was 2003. Residents of Virginia's 8th Congressional District came to Minnie Howard School in Alexandria to speak out against the impending war with Iraq.
U.S. Rep. James P. Moran, (D-8th) held a town meeting to discuss Iraq and invited two top defense department officials to help him.
"I think it is important that these very high-level officials listen to what you have to say," Moran told the 600-plus people who jammed the school's auditorium and cafeteria. "I know that you have many questions, and frankly, I have some of those very same questions."
Maj. Gen. William Kuklok, deputy commandant of the Marine Corps, and Victoria Clarke, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, joined Moran on stage. The auditorium would not hold all of the people who came, so many sat in the cafeteria and watched on television. There were peace signs and demonstrators outside, chanting anti-war slogans.
Simin Royanian was one of the demonstrators who spoke up at the meeting. "I am an American," she said. "I am Kurdish. I am a mother, and I am against the war in Iraq.
"For eight years, I watched as Saddam Hussein bombed my mother and my brothers and my sisters. I watched as he used chemical weapons against my family. I know what he is capable of, and I am against the war in Iraq," she said.
Royanian was not alone. "More than 69 percent of the people who telephone my office on this subject are opposed to a war in Iraq," Moran said. "I think that the percentage of people in this room who feel that way is even higher."
THE CONGRESSMAN laid out some of the concerns. "I think it is fair to assume that Saddam Hussein has chemical and biological weapons," he said. "We know that he has had anthrax and botulism in the past, because we helped him to get them ... However, I don't think we have seen proof that he is an imminent threat to the United States. ... Personally, I believe that North Korea is a more imminent threat. We know that they have plutonium rods and can fairly easily make six nuclear weapons. We also know that they have the capability of delivering those nuclear weapons. I don't believe that this is the case with Saddam Hussein," Moran said.
Clarke made the case for why war may be necessary. "First of all, let me say that the president has made no decision," she said. "The work that is continuing to go on behind the scenes is incredible. However, we have tried diplomacy for the past 12 years, and it just isn't working. How many United Nations resolutions must Saddam Hussein fail to heed before we take action?
"We have enlisted the support of 90 different countries. That is an incredible amount of support. It is truly unprecedented that so many different countries have come together to share information and to work toward resolving this crisis. Saddam Hussein has proven time and time again that he is a threat — to his own people; to his neighbors and to the world."
ONE MEMBER OF THE audience asked which country spends the most money on weapons that kill people. Moran responded. "I know that is a rhetorical question because the United States spends more on defense than virtually all other countries combined," he said.
Steve Chase of Arlington said, "I don't really know what to believe. Ms. Clarke says that we are not rushing to war, and yet everything you read in the press says weeks, not months. ... I believe that Congress already gave the power to go to war to the president, and I'm really upset about that. I look at the general and Ms. Clarke and I see what they see, but they see an apple and I see a tomato. They work for the president, so I'm not really interested in hearing what they have to say. I think they should listen to us," he said.
Moran agreed that indeed, Congress had given the power to go to war to President Bush. "We debated that issue; I voted against the resolution, but it passed easily," he said. "I believe that we have delegated our responsibility, but I was clearly in the minority."
VETERANS OF previous wars also spoke. "Thirty years ago, last week, I was in the middle of a war zone," said a Vietnam veteran who did not identify himself. "That was after two tours as a military adviser in Vietnam. We watched as the last U.S. troops flew off into the sunset, and the next morning, we woke up to find North Vietnamese troops already in the city that was to be the capital of what had been South Vietnam. I know what clear and present danger is, but I still have a problem with what clear and present danger Saddam Hussein poses."
Clarke spoke about imminent threat. "Before Sept. 11, what was an imminent threat?" she asked. "Was it on Sept. 10? I think that we all now understand that there is an imminent threat of terror."
The meeting lasted for more than two hours, and many people were waiting to ask questions when Moran brought it to a close. "I only have the school until 9 p.m., and it is past that," he said. "I appreciate your coming, and I am glad to have provided an opportunity for you to speak to me and to Gen. Kuklok and to Ms. Clarke.
"This kind of a meeting where citizens come to express their opinions and talk to their public officials is truly what America is all about," he said. "That is one of the reasons that many of us serve."