Five years at war: Iraq exit strategies

Wed., Mar. 19 marked the fifth anniversary of the United States' invasion into Iraq. The College Democrats took it upon themselves to recognize this day by hosting a panel discussion entitled "Exit Strategy: 5 Years of War." The three panelists at the event were David Halperin, Michael Hoffman, and Brian Mello. Halperin is currently the senior vice president for the Center for American Progress. He served as a speechwriter to President Bill Clinton and former presidential hopeful Howard Dean. Hoffman is the co-founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War, served in the original invasion into Iraq, and is a student here at the College. Mello is an assistant professor of political science at the College.

The discussion began with each panelist discussing their views on the United States leaving Iraq. The first panelist to speak was Mr. Halperin.

Halperin was adamant about the fact that there cannot be an exit strategy without us, the people. While it is true that the administration is not listening to opposition to the war, Halperin pointed out that there has not been any outrage opposition seen.

The United States is inarguably in a terrible starting position to withdraw from Iraq, and any option to withdraw will most likely end in more suffering. But, as Halperin urged, "it is time for us as citizens to take action." There is no simply military solution to this problem; the country needs to resort to political reconciliation.

Hoffman was the next panelist to offer his opinion, and he gave a number of reasons as to why the United States needs to get out of Iraq. One of the most pressing issues is that the United States occupation is taking away from the legitimacy of any government system in Iraq. Hoffman said that he wants an actual date given for the country to exit Iraq, something that none of the current presidential candidates are offering.

This does not mean that Hoffman wants the United States to abandon Iraq in any way, but the way in which are currently "helping" the country is not effective or efficient.

When asked about the interaction between Iraqis and American troops, Hoffman said it was one of the most difficult things to deal with. Soldiers were given no information or education about Iraq before the invasion and so did not understand that there are different ethnic groups and religions to be found in the country; not just one general type of Iraqi citizen.

Hoffman also touched upon the topic of media coverage of the war. The American news is willing to cover individual soldiers, but not masses of veterans. A recent example that Hoffman gave of such a thing happening was an event called Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan, which took place over the weekend of Mar. 14.

The four-day event brought together nearly 140 veterans, which is said to be the largest gathering of veterans to take a public stand against these wars. All of the veterans came prepares with personal stories that testified to the human costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For such a landmark event, Hoffman said that almost no American news coverage was held, and the Associated Press actively chose not to cover the event. And in a time where many Americans have been brought to believe that not supporting the war is not supporting the troops, one of Hoffman's concluding remarks was, "Bringing us home is supporting us (troops), not encouraging funding."

Finally, Prof. Mello gave his ideas on the topic, which were highly focused on Foreign Policy of the United States. There is a disconnect between American citizens and their knowledge of foreign policy; most citizens only understand economic issues of foreign policy, and this had led to a real lag time in supporting the war and beginning to oppose it.

Mello expressed that the overall image of the United States has become solidly unfavorable, and the longer we are in Iraq the longer we allow Iran to steam through the region as a main U.S. opposition.

A major reason as to why the United States has ended up in this position is because the Bush Administration failed to understand the history of Iraq and how de-institutionalized it had become. Even though Mello was favorable to finding an exit strategy he believes that there does need to be some form of security in Iraq. Ultimately, Mello would like to see how skillfully the country can connect different foreign policy concerns.

While the panelists may not have all agreed or had to same ideas as to how the United States should leave Iraq they did all seem to agree on one thing: the weight of the decision falls onto the shoulders of the Democrats. They have failed to vote in favor of cutting war funding costs, and have the most capability of anyone to end the war now.

Even though the forum was not intended to provide any solid answers to the issue at hand, seeing as there is no one simple solution, the knowledge that was shared by the three panelists certainly gave some more depth and perspective as to where the country stands five years later.