Conservative students at the University of Notre Dame were stunned to see the words “500,000 Iraqis Murdered” chalked in front of the site they had reserved for a 9/11 memorial.

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"The flag memorial is meant to unite the community under the principle that we are all Americans."

Members of the ND Young Americans for Freedom chapter arrived at the quad early Monday morning to begin erecting flags for their annual “9/11: Never Forget” memorial when they encountered the chalk message, which was apparently intended as a counter to their display.

According to Young America's Foundation, the students were unfazed by the chalking, and erected their display, anyway.

“This is our 4th year participating YAF’s 9/11: Never Forget Project. I really pushed the event on social media and posted on the class pages inviting all students, because I wanted to get all of campus involved,” Clare McKinney, YAF chapter chair at Notre Dame, told Campus Reform.

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“The flag memorial is meant to unite the community under the principle that we are all Americans and we must remain committed to advancing and defending freedom,” she noted, saying, “it’s disheartening to think there’s students on campus who don’t support that message."

According to McKinney, the club has never had any problems with vandalism in the past, and remain unsure of who was responsible for the chalking.

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