Check out the benefits of being apart of the army at the reserves website

See the PDF version of the Iraq Study Group Report

Visit the UWEC staff website for a complete list of Ali Abootalebi's publications,

Back to home page

War in Iraq comes into focus as election approaches

By Brittany Carter
UW-Eau Claire Public Affairs Reporting Student
Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2007

One weekend a month for the past four years, Jake Znidarsich has gotten into his car and headed off to Fort McCoy, an army-training base in west central Wisconsin.

Audio version of this story    Znidarsich before leaving for pre-depolyment training last summer (photo byTim Znidarsich)

When he graduated from high school in 2004, Znidarsich joined the Army Reserves to help defend his country.

 “I joined because of 9/11 and the sense of pride I felt at that moment in my life" Zndarsich said.  "The college money was not a bad incentive either.”

 In July of 2006, the Reserves called Znidarsich up for pre-deployment, which meant he was to begin preparing to fight in the Iraq war.

In a few short months, the war went from being just an idea to a full-blown reality for him as he prepared to be deployed.

Due to a broken ankle, Znidarsich never made it to Iraq, but that didn’t take his mind off of the ongoing problems over there.  He now has numerous friends fighting in Iraq without him and there is still a chance that the army may call him up yet again once his condition improves.

Like Znidarsich had done prior deployment training, some young men and women in Eau Claire have put the war in Iraq on the back burner.  However with the 2008 election year fast approaching and the number of causalities continuing to rise, more young people are starting to listen.

 President George W. Bush officially declared war in Iraq on March 19, 2003.  Since then, more than 3,800 American soldiers’have died in combat and thousands of Iraqi civilians have died in the crossfire, making unpredictable deaths a common occurrence.

Having distanced themselves from the issue quite a bit since the 2004 elections, a CNN Poll from June of 2006 reported that only 30 percent of Americans say they support the war in Iraq, and for the first time, most Americans don't believe that it is morally justified.

 University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Senior Kristy Letourneau, editor in chief of the conservative publication “The Riverfront Review”, has been actively involved in politics and war in Iraq since coming to the University in 2004. 

 Letourneau believes that the United States presence in Iraq is and will continue to be a positive thing because the United States. has helped saved a country from suffering under dictatorship.

 “We have helped the Iraqi people more than we have harmed,” Letourneau states.  “Yes, there have been civilian deaths, however when it rains, it rains on both the flowers and the weeds, and death was imminent in this effort.”

On Dec. 6, the Iraq Study Group issued a report that independently looked at the situation in Iraq, its impact on the region and the consequences for the interests of the United States.  The ISG is an organization co-chaired by the nation’s 61st Secretary of State James A. Baker, III and former congressman Lee H. Hamilton. 

In this report Baker and Hamilton expressed that Iraq has been a strain, not only the U.S. military, but also on diplomatic and financial capacities that could eventually diminish America’s credibility and strip the country of its global influence at a time when U.S. leadership is desperately needed.

 The House of Representatives passed a resolution on Feb. 16 to oppose Bush's escalation in Iraq.  This was the first time in four years that congress had voted against Bush's Iraq policy.

Representative of Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District, Ron Kind commented in an email that he has been a big supporter of H.R. 2956, the Responsible Redeployment from Iraq Act, which states its main purpose is to provide a safe and systematic approach for the reduction American troops in Iraq. 

 “We must send a clear message to the Iraqi government that the patience of the American people is not endless and that they must take control of their future” Kind said.

 Professor of Middle Eastern and Global Politics at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Ali Abootalebi has been an educator on the Middle East for the past 20 years.

 In 2006 he published an article titled "Iraq: What Went Wrong" in David W. Lesch's book, "The Middle East and the United States: A Historical and Political Reassessment". Abootalebi holds strong beliefs that the war in Iraq was wrong from the beginning.

 “It was a mistake to invade and our continued presence will breed more instability in the long run,” Abootalebi said.

So as the 2008 elections grow closer, young voters are beginning to reassess the situation in Iraq. It is something that some have stated, with the exception of Znidarsich, has slipped from the forefront of their own personal political beliefs. 

Znidarsich, who feels directly impacted by past elections because of the war in Iraq, has expressed the importance of this particular presidential election in regards to the war in Iraq.

 “I will vote in 2008 because it is my right and my responsibility" Znidarsich said. "I think that this is the most overlooked freedom among college students.”

If Znidarsich does get called back to serve in Iraq, he stated he will go and fulfill a duty he set out to do when he first signed up for the Reserves.