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March-April 2007
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The War at Home
Almost every week last year I received an e-mail with the subject line “Iraq Update.” With each message, the number following that subject ticked upward: one, two, three, and then, finally, on December 16, 2006, the line read “Last Deployment Update.” A friend of mine was stationed in Iraq with the Fourth Infantry Division. A whole year passed as I thought of him, prayed for him, but could not respond to a single one of his e-mails. Shame, confusion, disbelief—there were so many justifications for my silence. Even my joy at reading the words “Last Deployment Update” did not move me to respond. I wondered, though, how other undergraduates in the same situation behaved, or in what war-connected situations other students might have found themselves. Our college years have been surrounded by such unbelievable global conflict and strife; even though technology has narrowed the distance between areas of violence and our rooms, there is still the increasing sense that we, as privileged students, are more and more removed from those brutal realities. My hope in asking around was not to find a consensus, but to seek out individual perspectives—I wanted to see if any of my classmates had arrived at something more than my own frustrated silence. Henry Walters ’07 often participates in the weekly Harvard-Cambridge Walk for Peace through Harvard Yard, but he is usually the only student. “There is a misperception that we are at some far-distant remove from this war, but we create that remove,” he says of his peers. “In comparison to other citizens, there is, or there should be, an extra burden on students to acknowledge, react, speak out, demonstrate for or against, but most of all feel a war, feel that it is happening.” Walters wishes that his peers, rather than seeing college as a haven from the wider world, would engage it. There are students who do attempt that proposition. Roxanne Bras ’09 had always thought of joining the military, and enrolled in ROTC her freshman year. Of being a cadet, she says, “Generally people are pretty supportive, but most don’t know much about the service. It’s unfortunate how little they know of the military, its components, its mission, and its people.” Olivia Volkoff ’09, also enrolled in ROTC, was raised by two parents who “stressed the importance of service.” Her father attended the Naval Academy and she was raised in Annapolis, Maryland. She realizes, though, that her experience is unusual: “I happen to have grown up around the military, but for a lot of people, it’s a totally foreign entity.” That is why Volkoff emphasizes the value of having an ROTC program at a university like Harvard: “It’s a means for people to put a face with the armed services.” Bras adds, “There’s a stereotype for ‘uniforms,’ but Harvard cadets disprove that.” For some Harvard students, military service is not an option, but a requirement. Efi Massasa ’09, who spent three years in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) before matriculation, says, “The meaning of war is so different for Israelis. It involves every type of Israeli in the spectrum.” Fellow students here are frequently very curious about his time in the IDF, asking him questions but often challenging him, too. “Even though all students don’t serve, it is important they interact with people who did,” he says, “so they will be able to shape their own opinions about military service.” 1 | 2 | continued >  
 
 
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