West Virginia University students will stage a public forum on rebuilding postwar Iraq at 4:30 p.m. today (April 9) at West Virginia Universitys Woodburn Circle.

“Waging Peace: Perspectives on Rebuilding,”sponsored by Students for Economic Justice, will include several speakers focusing on how the United States and Iraq will rebuild the country after the war.

Speakers from SEJ , Veterans for Peace and Muslim Student Association will discuss the present humanitarian crisis in Iraq, the process of rebuilding the nation and domestic wartime issues such as budget cuts affecting American troops, veterans, students, low-income families and minority groups.

“Its really about our definition of peace,” SEJ member Joshua Tawney said.”Peace is a word being thrown around in many different contexts. Our definition of peace is a sovereign Middle East and Iraq, with a fully sponsored humanitarian campaign to rebuild infrastructure, provide necessary medical care, foodstuffs, and will follow steps to establish education, judicial reform and human rights.”

The SEJ , along with many other nonprofit groups, are decidedly concerned not only about the humanitarian crisis but also the domestic economic crisis, member Mike Bomford said.

“Students are really feeling the crunch of the war budget,”Bomford said.”Unemployment is at 6 percent, tuition is on the rise, budget cuts threaten university programs and jobs, and tax cuts threaten to create a deficit that this generation will be responsible to pay for.”

SEJ called a rally early last month to protest the rising costs of education and what the group sees as the fallacy of overextending a budget to cover rising military costs while cutting long-term programs like education, which stimulates the economy in the long-run as people receive better jobs.

The organization also feels compelled to remind the Morgantown community that discussion and dissent are a part of democratic culture and criticizing free speech and expression is unpatriotic and dangerous to a democracy.

“People say that any kind of speaking out against these budget cuts or the way the Bush administration has handled the Iraq situation is unpatriotic and thats simply not true,”Emma Fisher said.”People also say that it shows lack of support for the troops. That claim is ridiculous. I am a patriot, I support the tremendous effort of our troops and their families, and for their sake and mine I plan to continue to inquire, question and debate exactly what our presence in Iraq is really about.”