Story and photo by Carrie Pinkard
At the beginning of this year, President Trump ordered a U.S. airstrike that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. The aftermath of that strike led some Americans to fear retaliation from Iran and even the start of World War III.
On Jan. 22, USF St. Petersburg’s chapters of Turning Point USA and the College Democrats met to debate this choice by President Trump and tensions with Iran.
“This action taken by the Trump administration was illegal, unconstitutional, and most of all reckless,” College Democrats President Trevor Martindale said.
Turning Point USA disagreed, saying the airstrike was the appropriate show of force.
“I believe President Donald Trump correctly retaliated for the attack on our embassy,” said Turning Point USA President Kacy Cartmell. “If Donald Trump is going to continue on this path, he needs to go 100 percent.
“As we can see in the last 20 years, our presidents have never gone 100 percent on anything, which is why Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya have always been failed states since we’ve gotten involved.”
One of the arguments the College Democrats made against the airstrike that killed Soleimani was that the possibility of war would be “devastating.” Turning Point USA’s Chase Cooley responded by saying Iran isn’t as big of a threat as the College Democrats might think.
“You’re greatly overestimating the strength of Iran,” Cooley said. “Earlier you said their army has around 500,000 infantry. The United States has a million and another 2 million in reserve. We have the most powerful military in the world. If things really did have to go down, we’d squish them.”
The College Democrats also focused a lot of attention on the civilians in Iran and the impact further violence would have on them.
“We should have empathy for Iranian civilians, and for everyone, not just people who are Americans,” said College Democrats Vice President Karla Correa. “I think only thinking about Americans is a very narrow way of seeing the world.” “In a perfect world, we would take civilians into account, but also, you don’t win a war by fighting for the other side,” said Turning Point USA Vice President Lexi Bishop. “If you can find a war where the civilians were not brought into it, let me know. Going all the way back to the Roman empire where villages were taken, it’s just a part of war.”
Around 30 students gathered in the University Student Center ballrooms to watch the debate stretch on for two hours. The audience seemed engaged the entire way through; many even had questions written down to ask the debaters.
Toward the end of the night, the student debaters were asked if they themselves would step up to serve their country if a war did break out.
“I would rather go to jail,” Correa said. “I would rather die than fight for this country.”
“If we did go to war, I would not agree with it whatsoever, so I would not want to enlist,” Martindale said.
“I would be more than happy to,” Cartmell said. “I’m actually joining the Air Force. I think all of us here would be more than willing to fight in a war if it meant protecting American interest abroad.”
“Even though I’d hate to see the day where citizens are called upon to serve, I’d like to say I would gladly do so. I would gladly join the military,” Cooley said.
“I just want to say, ‘Hell yeah,’” Bishop said. “Join the Space Force.”
