Anupama Rao Singh, country director for UNICEF, discovered that in the government-controlled south and center of Iraq, the mortality rate of Iraqi children under five has more than doubled. "Bush, Bush, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide."

During the Gulf War, over a decade ago, the American government spent a lot of time boasting that "only" a few hundred Americans had been killed in the war. I wonder how that "only" felt to the families of those dead soldiers. When a reporter asked former general and present Secretary of State Colin Powell if he knew how many Iraqis had been killed during the war, he responded with, "That is really not a matter I am terribly interested in." I bet you feel really good about the fact that this guy is now our Secretary of State, the main man in charge of U.S. foreign policy. I know I feel safe with good old C.P. in charge.

Back before the Gulf War, the media focused mostly on the glory of American soldiers marching bravely off to battle to kill those big, bad Iraqis (a.k.a. women and children). Every once in a while Americans were treated to a gratuitous picture of some bombed Iraqi building, momentarily displaying the horrors happening in Iraq, but these shots were quickly followed by a speech by George Bush Sr. doing some cheerleading routine describing how America was "winning" the war. How exactly did this man define "winning," whoever has the least casualties "wins?"

In February 1991, at four in the morning, United States planes dropped bombs on an air raid shelter in Baghdad, leaving 400 to 500 people-mostly women and children-who had huddled there together to escape the ceaseless bombing, to burn to death. According to a reporter for the Associated Press, "Most of the recovered bodies were charred and mutilated beyond recognition."

At marches and protests around the United States, millions of Americans are expressing their abhorrence for another war with Iraq. Marching through the wind and rain, bearing signs that say, "No blood for oil," "Not in our names" and "Drop books, not bombs," while chanting, "Bush, Bush, CIA-how many kids will you kill today?" and "What do we want? Peace! When do we want it? Now!" Americans across the nation are exercising their First Amendment right to free speech and assembly.

Of course, I realize that a couple million protestors are still only a small part of the American population, and this is where I think the problem lies. Most Americans are totally apathetic about most issues affecting the United States. Even in presidential elections, less than half of the eligible population exercises its constitutional right to vote. In some years, only twenty to thirty percent of the eligible population voted.

So many Americans are willing to blindly follow our president, dear old Dubya, wherever he leads us, believing that he can do no wrong. After all, he is the president of the United States, the most powerful country in the world-a fact he will not let us forget. I wonder how many pathetically apathetic Americans have no idea what's going on anywhere other than A-OK USA.

Wake up, people! This is a war about oil, not about Iraq or Saddam Hussein! Bush, as well as other members of his Cabinet, have extremely good relations with big oil companies. Do you think we would be waging a war on Iraq if its main export was lima beans instead of oil? I don't think so.

Another concern is the hard-earned tax dollars going to support this conflict. As the education budget grows smaller, the military budget is increasing threefold. The economy in this country has hardly been exemplary the last couple of years (ever since Bush came into office, come to think of it), and the government still wants to go through with a war that will cost billions of dollars to put on-not to mention the costs that will come in the aftermath of the war.

Quince Orchard students have followed a national tradition and are being incredibly apathetic about this possible war. It is time to get involved. QO has founded Students for Ethical Alternatives (SEA), a chapter of the Montgomery County Students for Peace and Justice (mcspj.org), a county-wide student anti-war organization working to demonstrate against the war and inform students of what is really going on.

This could turn out to be our generation's Vietnam, so don't sit back and do nothing, letting whatever happens, happen.

As students and Americans, we can make a difference, so get out there and do it. As the popular war chant goes, "There ain't no power like the power of the people, cause the power of the people don't stop!"