Hoping for peace

Many people spoke on the steps in front of city hall. One speaker led the crowd in a chant of "win without war."

But people cannot win with war either, George Wolfe said. Wolfe is the director of Ball State's Center for Peace and Conflict Studies.

"The war has already started, and we are losing," Wolfe said. "We are being defeated without shooting a gun."

U.S. leaders are demonizing enemies and defeating American people with political rhetoric, Wolfe said.

"(U.S.) foreign policy is a fiasco," he said. "It's leading us down the wrong path."

History is repeating itself, but no one has learned from the past, Ball State student Adam Thompson said.

"It annoys me that we're in the same human situation we've been in since humanity has been around," Thompson said. "We put value on things, and then we go to war over those things."

U.S. leaders have placed a value on power and exerting that power worldwide, Thompson said.

History professor Abel Alves said he does not have a problem with the United States exerting its military power when necessary, but he is against a preemptive strike on Iraq.

"Are inspectors enough to keep (Saddam Hussein) in check?" Alves said. "I would argue yes."

U.S. military patrols of no-fly zones in Iraq are also part of keeping Saddam in check, he said.

"The current policy of containment has worked," Alves said.

While most protested with words and signs, a band had prepared to perform music. Revel in the Morning, made up of Ball State students, moved its performance to another student's basement because of the cold temperatures and a dwindling crowd.

"The songs have the spirit of peace," band member Ryan Reidy said. "We don't condone any violent behavior."

Although the band decided to move indoors, the willingness of peace advocates to brave the weather to protest made a statement, philosophy professor Kibujjo Kalumba said.