Two student political groups with conflicting ideologies are locked in debate about the Bush administration's decision to go to war in Iraq, members of both groups said.The Brandeis Republicans were compelled to act in response to a petition circulated last October by the Brandeis chapter of Generation Democracy for America, or DFA, the Brandeis Republicans President Robbie Schwartz '08 said.

The petition circulated by DFA in October stated that the Bush administration knowingly misled the country into war with Iraq.

The disagreement between the two organizations was catalyzed by DFA's petition campaign, which asked students to pledge to vote only for governmental candidates that "acknowledged that the United States was misled into the war in Iraq, advocate for a responsible exit plan with a timeline and support our troops at home and abroad."

DFA's efforts garnered over 1,000 signatures campuswide, according to Aaron Voldman '09, the group's campus coordinator.

Voldman said he initiated the campaign to spark "a dialogue in the Brandeis community" on the situation in Iraq, which he called "an unwinnable quagmire that requires [that] we elect new officials in favor of progressive change."

But Schwartz called the petition "misleading" and said he knew "a number of people" who he said probably would not have signed had they been fully informed of the petition's contents. After learning of DFA's petition campaign in early November, Schwartz and other members of the Brandeis Republicans issued a press release in response.

While the Republicans "have no problem with DFA circulating the pledge," the press release reads, the group does not want DFA "perpetuating the lie that the war was based on untruths." The press release cites the findings of a U.S. Select Committee on Intelligence, which concluded in July 2004 that much of the foreign intelligence concerning Iraq's chemical weapons program had been flawed. A second phase of the investigation focusing on how senior government officials used the evidence they were given has not yet begun.

"DFA's attempt at rewriting history is deeply disturbing and threatens the Brandeis community's ability to engage in open discussion and fair-minded debate on the war," the Republicans' statement reads.

Shulie Eisen '08, who did sign the petition, said that at no time did DFA members "use tactics or tenuous rhetoric" to earn her signature, and that she "knew what she was getting herself into" by signing.

Etan Dayan '08 did not sign because he said he feels the wording of the DFA pledge was misleading.

"I personally believe that the U.S. President may have been misdirected and believed that Iraq was a threat at the time," he said. "The president did everything in his power and made a valid decision. The DFA's statement that we were misled into war is in and of itself misleading."

To corroborate his charge that the United States was misled into war, Voldman cited documents such as the so-called "Downing Street Memo," a set of minutes from a British cabinet meeting stating that President Bush told members of the British cabinet that he knew there were no nuclear weapons in Iraq.

While an expressed opponent of the Bush administration, Sharon Boyd '08 said she did not sign the pledge because she refuses to practice what she called indiscriminate "one-issue" voting. "Many things went wrong in the war on Iraq, and I'm not sure exactly where or who's responsible for them," she said. "Until I can better conclude, I'm reserving judgment.