Yale Daily News

Howell's argument is terribly flawed. It is not merely that Blair himself is responsible for the illegal conduct and terrible devastation of this war. As Howell pointed out, Blair has many domestic policies to be proud of, in his many years as a statesmen.

Rather, that he comes is an opportunity to raise, again, in the collective consciousness, a war that, for all intents and purposes, has been abandoned by the press and by America. With so few months left before Bush leaves office, it is hard sometimes to work up, and express, the same outrage, feeling that nothing can be done to change the conduct of people who whom the ends always justify the means.

Bravo to the seniors, who at risk of being ostracized by some classmates who disagree, are willing to stand and, respectfully and silently, protest.

I, for one, am glad that the speaker is controversial. It would be a shame if the Senior Class picked someone merely because they would provoke no outrage. But just as I expect Hugo Chavez, or a former member of the Black Panthers or the Weathermen, might provoke indignation on the part of a few conservatives, you can not expect that all seniors will go without outrage.

The actions speak only for those who participate, just as Blair speaks only for himself. There is never "an appropriate forum" speech.

These actions will most definitely serve their purpose. This is a perfect "venue where they will have an effect." Thousands of people, young and old, many of whom have likely not considered the impact of the war in far too long.

Congrats to Freemark, Krivchenia, and the rest.

And happy graduation to all.

I wish all the honerable graduates good luck in their futures. I enjoyed my stay in your town, I was recently there and looked around and I fell in love with the place. Having said all of that we have a problem in the Middle East and The Prime Minister is the Special Envoy to the Middle East. I am not against protests, yet at the same time I want the graduates to enjoy there day for themselves. Mr. Blair can endure whatever civil protest you throw his way, so what I would do is instead of a demonstration or protest, I would be polite and then after all is said and done tell him to get back to work his services are needed at his post.

Matthew M. Kracher

As a Yale alum, I am proud that Yale's seniors are making clear their disapproval of the most catastrophic (not to mention immoral) foreign policy decision in decades. As Americans we owe much to the Iraqis for destroying their country; making a very mild disruption at Class Day by holding signs is the least we could do.

Congratulations to the class of 08. I wish I could be there with you.

I think it's sad that a few attention seekers felt the need to make a school wide celebration all about themsselves.

I think it's sad that #4 can't understand that the protesters were drawing attention to a major atrocity, not to themselves.

Also, Howell's logic-- for lack of a better term-- could have been used during an appearance by Hitler during the early '40s. Indeed, not all of his policies were laudable, but he was a master orator and prominent statesman. And he restructured the German economy-- a major achievement. So it would have been unfortunate then, as now, for selfish students to "politicize" the occasion by drawing attention to his criminal record, an irrelevant matter inside the bubble. Only the uncivilized would have reacted with decent human impulses to his presence, while the rest-- the best educated, no doubt-- would have seized upon the opportunity to learn from his vast experience.

Can't anything be conducted without injecting the self importance of "protest" into it?

Y '62

"Me! Me! Me!"

Graduation is about Yale's Seniors as a group, but even there, the Lefties canna keep their big traps shut.

"Me! Me! Me!"

You wanna protest? Please, then, go act as a human shield in Iraq, rather than disrupting the parents' $400,000 dog-n-pony show. Weaklings.

class day is not the right forum to protest the war. these people are ruining my idyllic happy class day. boo hoo.

It's very simple: if you don't want a politicized class day, don't pick a politician as your speaker.

ah, the old Hitler argument.

"What if Hitler had come to speak? What if Mao had come to speak?"

Well, thankfully we have had the oppressive Hu Jintao come to campus. And while many liberals kept silent for the arrival of this despot, they want us to raise a commotion when a (liberal) democratically elected politician comes to speak.

The fact of the matter is that every time people talk about an "illegal" war, they're talking about how the UN didn't approve the war. As if that's what important. I'm a liberal Brit who has opposed the War in Iraq, but I have opposed it on rational grounds. I don't consider it 'illegal', just a mistake. And unlike genocide or authoritarianism, all politicians are guilty of mistakes.

Blair's mistake was not that he thought Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction (when Saddam was faking possession of them to deter Iranian invasion, every intelligence report said they were there, and he would not let UN inspectors in - look it up it's all true). It would have been irresponsible for him to do nothing.

Blair's mistake was not about prosecuting the war without UN approval. Who cares about what China's dictators think about our foreign policy?

Blair's mistake was to trust in the American handling of the second phase (fighting the inevitable insurgency) of the war. Blair's mistake was to go in while telling the people of our country that the road would be easy. Blair's mistake was to let the US deride international opponents of the war (like Germany, France) as enemies rather than merely idealistic.

That is why the war has been a disaster thus far. Rational opponents of the war know that opposition to the war is better rooted in hard-headed realism about how the war was conducted than fantasy-land pronouncements about how it was immoral to remove a totalitarian sponsor of Palestinian suicide bombings, institutionalized rape, and horrendous secret police from power.

it wasn't quiet when hu came.

doesn't anyone remember most of central campus being untraversable BECAUSE of protests?

Why didn't anyone protest his trading British sovereignty to the unelected bureaucrats in the EU at the expense of the British people for personal power? What about the Orwellian "hate speech" laws that stifle debate on important issues in the UK?

Central campus was either blocked off by police or blocked by non-Yale protesters (Falun Gong and bused-in Chinese Communists alike). As far as I remember, there was no Yale protest.

Students had every right to protest the speech...in a NON-disruptive manner on the sidelines, somewhere where they would not have been blocking the view of Blair for their peers behind them. As much as I cherish the constitutional right to protest, while I was sitting at Class Day looking at an anti-war poster instead of Blair, I would have relished seeing the protesters hauled off by the police and batonned if they tried to resist.