Two students sat outside Taylor Hall smoking cigarettes. A group of guys were on their way to play basketball. A couple walked down the South Quad sidewalk holding hands.

At 7 p.m. Wednesday, the deadline for Saddam Hussein and his sons to leave Iraq came and went.

And student life went on.

Some want to go to war. Some don’t want it. And some just don’t care.

“It’s time,” said Kristi Spray, a senior business management major, who is pro-war.

“The grace period is over and America is done waiting.”

Although most students did not share Spray’s pro-war views, they did agree that military action needed to be taken.

“We’re just doing what we got to do to remain Americans,” said Rob Elston, a sophomore music education major, who is apathetic. “If we don’t do something about Iraq, the terrorists may come over here — I don’t know if we have a lot of choice.”

President George W. Bush confirmed U.S. military action began, with the aid of 35 countries, in a statement Wednesday night.

Some students agreed with Bush’s actions so far.

“I thought he was fair,” said Kevin Devany, a junior music education major with pro-war views. “He laid down an ultimatum to Saddam and gave him a chance.

“He’s been pushing a lot of buttons — he kind of gave the United Nations the finger, though.”

Other students were disgusted with Bush’s decision to invade Iraq.

“I think (Bush) is a little maniacal,” said Carly Riley, a freshman early childhood special education major, who has neutral war views. “Nobody is agreeing with him and he still wants to go to war.

“Even our allies aren’t by our side.”

Chrissy Kamide, a sophomore biology major with anti-war views, had no specific dissent for Bush, but rather for military action in general.

“War is a pretty powerful word,” Kamide said.

Freshman English major Rachel Irwin said she believes in another powerful word.

“For me, my perspective is that I believe in the Lord. The Bible said that wars are coming, and they are a sign of end times when Jesus Christ is supposed to come back,” she said. “I am not afraid of anything — dying or anything –because if I die, I go to Heaven to see the Lord.”

Amanda Murphy, a junior biology major with neutral war views, sees the Iraqi conflict as the war she believes every generation has.

“Before this, war was only something we heard about from our parents,” she said.

The war also hits home with Holley Friesz, a senior speech pathology major who has pro-war views.

“I’m old enough that the war hits home,” she said. “My friends can get drafted — this isn’t a war on paper anymore.”

Kamide also expressed fear of the draft.

“I don’t want Bush to reinstate the draft, because I have brothers,” she said.

The reinstitution of the draft is a misconception Douglas Bible, a history graduate student and ROTC cadet battalion sergeant major, scoffs at.

“There’s not going to be a draft, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard,” he said. “The military is so well-trained we don’t need the manpower.

“I don’t see the draft being reinstituted for anything short of a full-scale World War III.”

But Kamide said she would hold pro-war beliefs if a draft was not instituted.

“Just as long as we win and it’s short, it’s OK. But if lots of people are dying — I just think Bush is trying to avenge what his father did.”

Spray disagrees with the theory that Bush is only trying to finish his father’s job.

“This isn’t a rebuttal, but rather a sequel and we will end it here,” said Spray, who was wearing red, white and blue sandals to display her patriotism.

Students mainly expressed fears, not of potential nuclear attacks, but for the families of lost soldiers.

“I mostly feel scared for the families of the troops,” Devany said. “I feel for them and it has to be hard not knowing what is going to happen.”

In the end, any military action the United States takes, whether it be large or small in scale, there will be critics.

“You can’t please everyone all the time,” Spray said. “I think the United States had to do what is right for the greatest number of people.”v