by Jeff Smith
On Thursday, August 23 I attended a forum organized by the local chapter of Democracy for America, with more than minor support by the Iraq Summer Campaign. The forum was entitled "Searching for a Constructive Response to Our Entanglement in Iraq." The awkwardness of the title was only outdone by the event itself, which featured 3 panelists, 2 of which were university professors and the other a retired military chaplin.
Doug Howard, who teaches at Calvin College was first to speak. He said upfront that he was not going to speak about Iraq, which was puzzling, since that was the purpose of the event. Instead, Howard spoke broadly about the need for all of us to think differently about three terms - the Middle East, Islam, and the West. I didn't disagree with his comments, but again it had little to do with the evening's topic. The Professor from GVSU and the retired Military Chaplin pretty much echoed each other's comments, in that while the US invasion of Iraq may have been ill-conceived, a US withdrawal would be a mistake.
The GVSU professor, Robert Stewart-Ingersoll, not only thought that the US should maintain the occupation of Iraq, he claimed that to leave would result in a higher number of Iraqi deaths than the current US occupation has caused. The certain human catastrophe would come about in the form of a civil warm that would linger for years to come. Neither of these statements was supported by facts or sources. In fact, nothing that he said was substantiated with any credible evidence or analysis, except for 2 international security experts, which he never named. The retired military chaplin also vigorously defended the position of maintaining the US occupation of Iraq and the only sources he cited were the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Iraq Study Group report, hardly progressive perspectives. I didn't stick around for the question and answer period, since the questions were only to be submitted in writing, which doesn't allow for any real discussion and the panel was so biased in favor of the US Occupation that whatever responses they would have would ultimately come back to that position.
It was quite appalling to sit through an hour of comments from three panelists who never said a word about what the Iraqis think. I was told by a friend later that that question was asked and the GVSU professor said quite simply "Oh, they want us to leave," but then proceeded to say why that would be a mistake. If someone organizes such a forum with the stated purpose of having a discussion or dialogue, then you cannot have panelists who essentially present the same position. Not having differing opinions pretty much defeats the purpose of wanting a discussion. If this was a forum on why the US should maintain the US Occupation of Iraq, and it certainly seemed like it was, then the panelists would have done their job.
The most disturbing aspect of the evening had to do with the fact that Congressman Vern Ehlers was invited, even though that was not part of the promotional material for the forum. Congressman Ehlers did show up and it is safe to say that he went home thinking, "my position is the correct one, since the forum panelists articulated the same position." Ehlers had been quoted in the Grand Rapids Press on August 10 as saying, "We have gone into Iraq, whether rightly or wrongly, but we have messed up their country, and we have a moral obligation to stay." That Ehlers attended such a forum, a forum organized by folks working on the Iraq Summer Campaign, and heard people with the same position as him did a great deal of damage to local efforts to confront him on his support for the war. Ehlers has no reason to listen to any of the groups who have been challenging him since the beginning of the war, particularly the group I am involved in ACTIVATE. ACTIVATE has been consistently opposing the US occupation of Iraq and even has a 10-point document that provides multiple sources on what we mean when we say "End the Occupation." This is a position that is held by the largest anti-war groups in the US, United for Peace and Justice, Code Pink, ANSWER, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Military Families Speak Out. An immediate withdrawal of US troops is also the position of the majority of Iraqis, a perspective we need to listen to and respect.
