Whose Wars?
Teaching about the Iraq War and the War on Terrorism

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Introduction

"Whose Wars?" we ask in the title of this Rethinking Schools collection of articles on the Iraq war and the so-called war on terrorism. The question itself and its answers are multi-faceted. The title invites teachers and students to probe deeply and broadly for the meaning of the conflicts engaged in by the U.S. military. We hope the articles, activities, and readings here will help guide that inquiry.

Whose wars? Well, on one level, they are our students' wars. Brandon Tobler was a student in my first-period Global Studies class in the 1999-2000 school year. He graduated in 2001 and joined the U.S. Army Reserve. He was one of the first to die in the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Although Brandon regarded the military simply as a route to college and a decent job, Iraq became Brandon's war. And years after that initial invasion, military recruiters continue to "stalk" our students, as one Portland, Oregon, high school senior recently described his experience. So like it or not, these are their wars. (See "The Recruitment Minefield," p. 59.)

But on another level, these are not our students' wars. Students had nothing to do with the policies that culminated in the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, or with the insurgencies that ensued. Some of the activities included here - see, for example, Hyung Nam's "The United States and Iraq: Choices and Predictions," Polly Kellogg's "Drawing On History to Challenge the War," and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "A Revolution of Values" - help students reflect on the antecedents to the 2003 invasion and examine some of the patterns in U.S. foreign policy over the last decades. Another way of asking, "Whose Wars?" is to ask, "Who benefits from these wars?" This key question weaves through almost all the selections in this collection.

As the death count rises for Iraqis and Afghanis, it is apparent that at its most basic level, these are their wars. It's essential that our curriculum confronts this fact truthfully. War is not Hollywood, war is not a macho presidential boast that we'll "smoke 'em out." War is life left empty and twisted and brutalized. Although lessons in this volume cannot capture the enormity of war, its human cost is also an essential theme in this collection. See, for example, "Thinking in Pictures, Feeling in Words."

Finally, whose wars? Our wars. We pay the bills, we elect the representatives who vote the war appropriations, and in daily actions, we oppose, support, or acquiesce to U.S. wars. These are our wars and our students' wars - to support or to stop.

The articles and activities in this collection are drawn from our work over the past few years. Some were published before the Iraq war began, during the imposition of sanctions on Iraq, in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, or in response to Michael Moore's documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11. We have not attempted to update them; they are part of Rethinking Schools' ongoing effort to share resources that can help students think carefully and critically about today's wars.

Bill Bigelow
For the Rethinking Schools
editorial board