The SDSU Divest Coalition held a protest against American and Israeli attacks on Iran at the turtle pond on March 3. 

The coalition, composed of multiple student organizations aligned against the war, demands that SDSU end ties with defense companies and military-affiliated programs.

Students in attendance heard speeches by coalition organizers before marching to the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps building, chanting slogans against the war in Iran. 

On Feb. 28, American missile strikes killed Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei in Tehran, as well as hundreds of civilians, including up to 168 schoolgirls ⁠and staff at a primary school ​in Minab, according to Iranian authorities.

Organizers with SDSU Divest said the university is complicit in this war through military programs such as Troops to Engineers and ROTC. 

Yucef Bouzina, a fourth-year student studying public health and president of the Middle Eastern and North African Student Union, said, “SDSU needs to be held accountable, specifically for their targeting of low-income and low-opportunity students in feeding them into programs like ROTC.”

According to the program’s website, ROTC offers scholarships and trains students for military officer positions. Students who accept army scholarships commit to 8 years of service upon graduation.

Muhamed Erekat, a fourth-year civil engineering student and organizer with Students for Justice in Palestine, also condemned SDSU’s Troops to Engineers program. 

Troops to Engineers places veterans into engineering programs and careers, “with industry leaders such as Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Collins Aerospace providing significant funding and internship opportunities,” according to the SDSU website.

“Essentially, San Diego State University has a pipeline that promises military veterans a guaranteed job in a defense company,” Erekat said.

Northrop Grumman, the program’s main sponsor, was just awarded a $225 million contract modification by the U.S. Department of War on March 2, and saw their stock rise 4.9% as Wall Street reacted to the strikes on Iran over the weekend.

The Divest Coalition wants to see SDSU cut ties with defense companies like Northrop Grumman. Bouzina said that this protest and grassroots activism are “the first step to demanding accountability.” 

The second step, Bouzina said, would be platforming a resolution in front of Associated Students. 

Bouzina, who was elected as the student diversity commission representative for A.S., said, “It is possible for the Associated Students to adopt a position that would put pressure onto the SDSU administration to making these things really tangible.”

He believes the student government has real power to change policy, referencing past A.S. advocacy that led to the establishment of identity centers on campus.

Bouzina and Erekat urged students to join protests against the war and reflect on the history of U.S. intervention in the Middle East. 

“The grounds for [the war in Iran] shouldn’t be possible considering what we saw happen in Iraq not too long ago,” Bouzina said. “History is repeating itself again.”

The Trump administration justifies the ongoing attacks on Iran on similar grounds used to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003, such as eliminating an oppressive dictator and destroying powerful weapons.

The Iraq War is now widely viewed as a mistake, even among veterans, with 62% of Americans saying it was “not worth fighting,” according to a Pew Research Center poll from 2019. 

The attacks on Iran are even less popular, with only one in four Americans approving of the strikes, according to a poll published by Reuters on March 2.

Iran has retaliated by firing missiles towards Israel and neighboring countries that host American military bases. 

Congress voted down a resolution to restrict President Donald Trump’s war powers on March 5, and the strikes have continued, despite condemnation by the United Nations.

“We recognize that the Iranian regime is oppressive, but we also recognize history,” Erekat said. 

“If we are so big on democracy, then we know that in the 1950s, Iran democratically elected a [prime minister], Mossadegh, and when he wanted to nationalize his country’s resources to uplift his people, the CIA ousted him in a coup,” he said.

In 2013, the CIA declassified documents revealing the agency’s role in the coup that overthrew the elected Mohammad Mossadegh, which cemented the rule of the monarchy in Iran.

“The U.S.’s intent and goal in any military action is always about weakening and destabilizing the region further,” Erekat said. “It is never about human rights.”