Home > Window on Washington > Archives > 2007 > August > 02 > Entry
Gimme Shelter
When anti-war activists dominated campus politics in the 1960s, the Young America’s Foundation was formed as a conservative counterpoint for the Vietnam generation. Now, with the Iraq war grinding into its fifth year, the group’s 29th annual National Conservative Student Conference is in full swing this week. But the conflict that has taken the lives of more than 3,600 U.S. troops was well below the radar in a Thursday morning session, where students voiced more interest in how to keep global warming activists from stemming domestic oil production or how to thwart the influence of Hollywood celebrities.
“Is anyone going to ask me about the war,” Sen. James Inhofe, R-Ok., pleaded to some 300 college students attending his conference talk at George Washington University. “Hold your hand up if you are; I’ll put you at the front of the line.”
With four students in line to ask questions, not a single hand went up.
“My favorite food happens to be cheeseburgers,” the next questioner pointed out, as a prelude to asking whether “environmentalists” were poised to challenge the beef industry.
“Enjoy your hamburger while you’ve got it,” Inhofe replied.
At last a student stepped forth with this: “How’s it going in Iraq and are we having progress?”
“Where’ve you been,” Inhofe asked the questioner, a query that might have been taken any number of ways.
“A miracle is taking place right now in Iraq,” the senator said, going on to assert that the surge in troop levels is taking a bite out of the insurgency and showing gains in security parts of the country.
As Inhofe left the podium, conference attendees took a break, and the overhead sound system resonated with a voice from another era: the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger belting out the words “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”
Permalink | |
