Clutching his heart, a tie-dye T-shirted man gasped, "Oh George! Read my lips!" and rolled his eyes as President Bush solemnly promised that "This will not be another Vietnam."

Others sitting around him afforded themselves a small giggle but stayed glued to the television set as Bush delivered his Persian Gulf address.

The viewers, huddled in a classroom in Willard Building last night, represented about 30 members of Student First Step, a group that encourages political activism.

Student First Step will sponsor a peace rally from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday in the Paul Robeson Cultural Center Auditorium.

"It's just the same broken record that he's been spitting out since the beginning of the whole thing," Christopher Franz, the group's president, said. "It's definitely propaganda."

Franz deplored Bush's decision to attack Iraq by air and questioned his motives for initiating the aggression.

"This war is really about money, or oil, and a new place to re-establish the military complex now that the Cold War is over," he said.

Brian Green, the group's vice president, predicted an increase in terrorism and said he feared a negative response from nations around the world.

"This is not putting us in the hero seat. This is making us the enemy," Franz said. "We're the ones who get spit on and car bombed when we go places -- not George Bush. He rides around in limos."

Franz and Green also criticized Bush's restrictions on the media covering the gulf crisis, calling the limitations unnecessary and suggesting that the president is trying to combat potential anti-war sentiment that could be spread by the press.

"(Saddam's) not gonna be sitting in front of CNN with a bag of chips and a beer and saying, 'OK, now move on in with Troop No. 3,' " Franz said.

Josh Lannin, a senior at State College Area High School, said, "You're going to see a lot of activism shortly. A lot of people feel like they must support the troops.

"But supporting them increases the chances that they'll kill other people and get killed themselves. By protesting, we're increasing the chances that they'll come home alive."