Locals react to violence in Libya
Members of the Cache Valley Peace Works gathered with signs, a flag, and staunch opinions in front of the Logan Tabernacle, Friday evening, to advocate for peaceful solutions to the conflict in Libya.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi came under renewed international pressure in February when he reacted with violence against rebels in his country. On March 18 the United Nations Security Council authorized a no-fly zone and military action over Libya. Air and sea strikes from American and European forces began the next day.
Dave Powelson, a long-time member of Cache Valley Peace Works, said in the beginning, the U.S. was like a policeman breaking up a fight. Now, it has taken sides, and that will only create more problems, he said.
“Obama was correct in getting the UN to endorse this, and then acting as an agent of the UN to separate the sides I think was fine,” Powelson said, “and now, I think the United States has gone way beyond that.”
President Barack Obama defended the military action with Libya on March 28 in an address from Washington, D.C., and made an assurance that the U.S. role will be limited. He called Gadhafi a tyrant and said in Libya’s past Gadhafi hanged people in the streets and killed more than 1,000 people in a single day.
“We knew that if we waited one more day, Benghazi, a city nearly the size of Charlotte, could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world,” Obama said.
While Powelson said he does not support Gadhafi lashing out against the rebels, he said the rebels also went too far. Violent actions escalate into lasting feuds.
“Ultimately, warfare causes reaction,” he said. “Although sometimes violence can have a desirable effect in the short term, in the long term, and it is always the wrong way to go.”
The Peace Works has been consistent since forming in 2005. Every Friday at 5:30 p.m. they assemble outside the Logan Tabernacle. They stand with their signs advocating peaceful solutions to world problems.
During these 30 minutes, as the group stood in the fading sunlight, passersby stopped to discuss their own beliefs about political and social issues.
Peace Works member Brenda Chung said there was an active peace movement in Logan before the invasion of Iraq, but the political atmosphere in the valley at the time made it difficult to organize because people were overwhelmingly pro-war. Now, after almost a decade of war, those who may have shouted at the group from passing vehicles on Main Street are either supportive or keeping silent.
“From a distance, and both historically and geographically, you can see that violence almost never achieves its desired affect,” said Peace Works member and USU associate professor Tom Schroeder.
Chung said there are many ways people can promote peace. The Peace Works shows movies explaining why war and violence are not a good idea, she said. People can also write letters to the editor and their congressman, and of course they are always welcome to join them for the usual Friday gathering on Main Street.
“It’s always a challenge. People don’t know what to do to promote peace,” Powelson said.
From dance teacher to postal worker and instrument craftsman to professor, the Peace Works members come from different worlds with differing ideologies. They all agree on one thing, though – war is not the answer.
– la.stewart@aggiemail.usu.edu