The future of the Iraq war and the failures of the Bush administration were the focus of four experts’ discussion Monday evening in the Sports Medicine Building.
The panel discussion, “The United States in Iraq: Next Steps,” marked the fourth anniversary of the U.S.’s occupation of Iraq.
Author Rajiv Chandrasekaran, who was assistant managing editor and former Baghdad Bureau Chief for the Washington Post, was one of the guest speakers.
“Getting both sides to trust each other and work with each other will take decades, not months,” Chandrasekaran said. “A redeployment of forces as some Democrats are advocating on Capitol Hill . sounds good in theory, but if American forces leave . would it go from dozens killed a day to a hundred dozen a day?”
Chandrasekaran discussed his stay in the Green Zone, an area in Baghdad where the U.S.-appointed coalition lived and worked in 2003 following the takedown of Saddam Hussein.
Inhabitants of the Green Zone isolated themselves from the rest of Iraq, he said, and showed reckless disregard for Islamic law. Within the Green Zone, electricity was available all the time, while the city of Baghdad only received a few hours of electricity a day.
Cleaning services, shuttle buses, bars, a disco and a cafeteria describe the comfortable, American way of life within the Green Zone, Chandrasekaran said. He also said many officials in Iraq enforcing policy were under-experienced and often had never traveled outside the U.S. before.
Lawrence Korb, former Assistant Secretary of Defense, emphasized strategic redeployment.
“We don’t have any good options . not when the job wasn’t done right in the first place,” Korb said.
The worst-case scenario following a policy of strategic redeployment, Korb said, would be that Iraq becomes a haven for al-Qaeda. However, he is confident the U.S. could deal with this scenario. He said a successful strategic redeployment would involve redistributing troops from central Iraq to other areas around the nation.
“All six nations bordering Iraq are there now to protect their own agenda. They are all in there, but not constructively,” Korb said. “The Iranians have been very helpful in Afghanistan,” not to help the U.S. but to protect their own interests, he said. “They know it will be their problem, as well as ours.”
One key, beneficial factor of a strategic redeployment versus a surge is that a surge would help the U.S. save its volunteer army, Korb said.
“We have severely overstretched our military,” Korb said.
Never before has the U.S. totally wiped out all of its strategic ground reserves, he said. Today, people aren’t volunteering as readily as they did in the past to join the armed forces, he said, and while the military has extenuated the conditions under which a person can join, needed civilian interest has not occurred.
Bill Newmann, associate professor in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs and pioneer of the new Homeland Security major, joked that the U.S. needs to avoid electing any more presidents from Texas.
Then, Newmann moved on to more serious matters, commenting on the Bush administration’s international policies.
Newmann argued that the U.S. is sending a mixed message to Iraq. On one hand, the U.S. is promoting its own liberal democracy, which advocates freedom and choice. On the other hand, the U.S. is not leaving Iraq with many options. Now, he said, the U.S. has a policy of spreading liberal democracy that is very different than the policies under former presidents Clinton and George H.W. Bush.
Newmann argued the president’s plans and policies are igniting the holy war many extremists are using as a reason to fight back.
Jeffrey Record is an author and a professor in the department of strategy and international security at the United States Air College in Montgomery, Alabama.
“It’s the fact that we are once again reminded of the limits of American power . particularly the limits of American military power,” Record said.
“Iraq has taught us (the) U.S. military’s power is very limited . it has taught us the American electorate has very limited political focus,” Record said.
The war we’re in, he said, is out of our league.
Record added the confusion and lack of success in Iraq results from what he refers to as “irregular warfare.” The enemy has war practices that exploit several American weaknesses, he said.
“It’s a noble cause, but lost sight,” audience-member Tony Rolando said.
Rolando’s friend, Saliah Castro, disagreed with Rolando.
“I don’t think it’s a noble cause at all, or anything like that,” Castro said.
Castro, a political science major, said although he enjoyed listening to the discussion, all the panelists had the same point of view, arguing the Iraq war was a poorly-planned and poorly-executed mistake.
Imdat Ozen is pursuing a Ph.D in public policy and administration. He stayed a few minutes after the discussion to ask Newmann a question he did not feel was addressed.
“I know we need to leave, I get that, but after leaving, what type of help will we give?” Ozen said. “It doesn’t seem fair to leave the mess, come back (to the U.S.), say OK, we’re safe, and expect a better Iraq.”
Ozen is originally from Turkey and moved to the U.S. about five years ago to pursue his education. Ozen said he expects at minimum the U.S. to have some economic responsibility.
The event was sponsored by the Wilder school.