Ironically, the loss of someone’s life sometimes comes as a rude awakening for many.

Yet, on campus, the death of Brian M. Wood, a soldier from Torrance, late last week, and the fact that the death toll in the past three weeks has reached more than 200 triggered varied reactions and emotions among students.

In addition, students have become cynical when it comes to whether America should be at war in Iraq.

The death of local soldiers has allowed some students to relate and to further understand the reality of the war, Nasir Hamid, English major, said.

“(I) imagine my own brother dying,” Hamid said. “Then you (wonder) if (the war) is right or wrong and whether we have to get out (of Iraq).”

“It is absolutely devastating that all these young people are giving up their lives for essentially something that should have never happened,” Celina Luna, student trustee, said.

Jean Wilkerson, art major, said that students should empathize with all the soldiers who have lost their lives throughout the war, not just local members of the armed forces.

“(Americans) should have all along felt the impact of young men and women who were losing their lives,” Wilkerson said.

Hamid, Wilkerson and Luna concur that declaring war against Iraq was not necessarily the best course of action the U.S. could have taken.

“I really wish we would have thought it all the way through,” Luna said. “On the surface, (declaring war) seemed like a really good idea. For all we knew they (Iraq) had weapons of mass destruction, but we have not found them.”

“I don’t think (the government) understood the culture and the situation well enough when it went in,” Wilkerson said.

Along with questioning the basis for declaring war against Iraq, the current situation in regions like Fallujah also leave students uncertain of whether the American government should continue to reconstruct Iraq.

“I think we should get out of Iraq and try to understand ( the Iraqis’) angle,” Hamid said. “(We should) find out why they are angry and establish peace and harmony.”

“(We) can’t completely pull out because it is going to cause problems, (we) can’t leave something half-finished,” Luna said.

“(America) can’t pull out,” Wilkerson said. “(If people back out after stepping up to) terrorists it rewards them; it teaches them that it is the right way to go.”

Nevertheless, Hamid, Wilkerson and Luna agree that the current affairs will affect voters at the election polls this November.

“I think overall, it’s going to help Bush,” Wilkerson said. “In general, especially with the last events in Fallujah, people on the fence are going to think: ‘I want to keep Bush in there; I want to make sure that (everything) gets handled.'”

“I would encourage people to vote and to follow up on both candidates,” Luna said. “It is interesting, they (both presidential candidates) have increasingly different views on what to do in Iraq. Essentially, (people) are voting for the candidate who’s going to finish the job.”

Still, Marine reservist Edwin Portillo said he believes that using the deaths of members of the armed forces as evidence to attack the government, is disrespectful to the deceased soldiers.

“By saying that those soldiers died for political reasons, that is a disrespect to them,” Portillo said. “When people join the military, they join for a greater cause, not political reasons.”