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Campus anti-war network hosts Iraqi War panel discussion |
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Tuesday, 30 January 2007 |
by JAMISON DORAN
News Reporter
Students, faculty and members of the community gathered in Belk Library & Information Commons Thursday evening to listen and take part in an Iraq panel discussion hosted by the campus anti-war network.
 Active Image | Garrett Price | The Appalachian
Many students and faculty went to Belk Library & Information Commons Thursday evening to listen and participate in a panel discussion about the history of Iraq, the current situation and what needs to be done to improve it. Four professors helped prepare the debate.
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“We
thought it was important to have this panel discussion so we can spread
awareness,” Matt H. Cronheim, a junior political science major and
president of the campus anti-war network, said.
The anti-war network asked four professors to prepare and present different topics that concerned the ongoing war in Iraq.
Dr. Curtis R. Ryan, an associate professor of political science, gave a
brief history of Iraq and how the conflict began. He is an expert on
the Middle East.
“Iraq was made up of three large parts that were joined together in one country after the First World War,” Ryan said.
This caused Iraq to be one of the youngest official countries but one of the oldest when it comes to civilization and culture.
Ryan hoped to debunk several myths that people often believe to be true about the war and Iraq in general.
People seem to believe there was a debate as to whether or not we
should invade Iraq, when there wasn’t, Ryan said. There was an
extremely bipartisan group of experts who knew that this would be a bad
idea, he said.
He said terrorism has gone up since the war began and there are now
terrorist organizations in Iraq that were not there before the war.
Dr. Renee G. Scherlen, an associate professor of political science, discussed foreign policy objectives.
“Policies should have clear objectives that tell you when we have
succeeded. We don’t have that, and we haven’t planned for post-invasion
strategy,” she said.
“We don’t know how well we’re doing over there. We need to have a way of measuring our level of success,” Scherlen said.
Professor Leigh E. Dunston, a visiting professor of finance, banking and insurance, agreed with Scherlen.
“Every single rational has led us deeper and deeper into failure,” he said.
We need to disengage from the actual fighting, but still remember that
we do have an obligation to [the Iraqi] people, Dunston said.
“This is a complex issue and it’s important that we learn as much as possible about it as we can,”
Cronheim said.
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