Eye on the Storm


Cover of Eye on the Storm

From the editor's preface to the 2003 edition of Eye on the Storm:

As the book goes to press, a dozen years after the Gulf War, a second President Bush is busy following virtually the same path to war with Iraq, as was blazed by his father in 1990. There is the same rush to bomb, the same threats and ultimatums, the same demonizations of the enemy, the same refusal by the media and politicians to aggressively expose the ignorance of history, the lies and half-truths that undergird the administration's policy.

This books shows how the Gulf War was motivated by greed for oil, how it violated elementary ethical principles, and even more elementary human rights. Additionally this study indicates how such motivations and violations were papered over by a basically uncritical, cheerleading press.

But not all Americans joined in the cheers. There was significant opposition to the war throughout the United States. That opposition surfaced strongly at Berea College, in Berea, Kentucky. At Berea, teach-ins and rallies were held regularly; many students traveled to Washington to join the national protest there; General Studies courses focused on understanding the war. One student, whose essay appears in this volume, spent days encamped in front of Berea College's administration building to make his dissenting voice heard.

That voice and the others appearing in this volume, deserve to be heard. So do dissenting voices today, at Berea and throughout the country. For the Bush war on our immediate horizon threatens not simply to repeat the history of twelve years ago, but to make its horror seem benign.


Copyright © 2002, Berea College
Updated 6/24/03 - JV

URL: www.berea.edu/GST/Rivage-Seul/eyeonstorm.html

Information prepared by Mike Rivage-Seul, mike_rivage-seul@berea.edu.
Page maintained by Sandy Bolster.