Is Palestine the new Vietnam for university students in the US?

• Published date: 06 May 2024
• Publication title: Mail & Guardian: Web Edition Articles (Johannesburg, South Africa)

These protests have been peaceful, and the students disciplined, yet they have been arrested and the police have used tear gas and rubber bullets

The last time we saw something close to this kind of student activism in the US was during the era of the Vietnam War in the 1960s. The Vietnam veterans, other organisations and, later, many citizens were opposed to the senseless war. On 4 May 1970, at Kent State University in Ohio, 13 students were shot; nine were injured and four were killed by the Ohio National Guard — simply for exercising their right to protest against the Vietnam War. This was just one of many protests at other colleges and universities throughout the US in the 1960s and 1970s. The US eventually pulled its troops out of Vietnam.

The debate about Palestine has divided Americans for a long time given that it is the taxpayer who bears the burden of this conflict when the government sends billions of dollars in military aid to Israel. Just a few days ago Congress passed a bill to send $26 billion to Israel amid its war in Gaza.

Such actions only indicate that the US has learned nothing from its own history. The unpopular and unjust decisions and actions of the US regarding Israel in Gaza are being opposed by the brave, young people of this country.

To those who lived through the 1960s and 1970s, the current scenes on national television of student protests are all too familiar.

But there is a difference between the struggles of yesteryear and today. The US had military conscription and young people were drafted into the armed forces to serve in Vietnam. Many young people did not want to go to war, nor had any desire to serve in the military. They were sent off to fight, be injured and traumatised or die in an unnecessary war. When Muhammad Ali and others stood up against the draft, the young people of America stood with them.

Today the US does not have compulsory military conscription. It is now a volunteer army. Also, in the case of Israel and Gaza, the US has no combat boots on the ground killing the Palestinian people — except that Uncle Sam is happy to supply weapons and money to enable Israel to wipe out the people of Gaza and...