Today the Grand Rapids City Commission announced its plans for a community forum on the Iraq War. The forum, titled "Conflict in Iraq: Confronting Policy Alternatives," is scheduled for Tuesday October 30 from 6:00pm to 8:30pm at Grand Rapids Community College's Calkins Science building.

The forum--which was organized as an "alternative" to a City Commission resolution against the Iraq War--is being organized with the cooperation of the Greater Grand Rapids National Issues Forum. According to Liz Keegan of the Greater Grand Rapids National Issues Forum, the forum will be a place "for dialog, not debate" and will use "issue maps" of different "policy alternatives" for the Iraq War. The policies outlined on the "issue map" include an increase in the United States' presence in Iraq to secure US interests, providing Iraqis with the means to succeed (defined primarily in military terms), and withdrawing from Iraq now. Nothing else was said about how the forum would be structured and there was no discussion of who might be addressing the audience. The forum is based on a curriculum developed by the National Issues Forum for discussion on Iraq, although the online curriculum is for longer sessions.

The forum is a far cry from the resolution opposing the war that various community and antiwar groups had been seeking. While that resolution made a clear statement that the Iraq War was a mistake that had significant financial and human costs for Grand Rapids, Michigan, the United States, and Iraq, the forum as described accepts the strategy of increasing the United States presence in Iraq as equal with the option of leaving now. Moreover, the plan revealed by Ms. Keegan and Commissioners Bliss and Lumpkins made no mention of inviting area legislators--Representative Ehlers and Senators Levin and Stabenow--to the forum as was discussed earlier by organizers.

The Greater Grand Rapids National Issues Forum describes itself as "a local network that organizes public, free forums that give citizens the opportunity for dialogue on important community issues" based on the "simple notion that people need to come together to reason and talk - to deliberate about common problems." According to their website, the Forum has discussed a wide variety of topics from alcohol to welfare since its founding in the early 1980s. The organization's website says that "through deliberation, participants move from making individual choices to finding common ground for action."

While the "Conflict in Iraq" forum might be an important exercise in "democracy" for citizens of Grand Rapids wishing to have input on Iraq policy, it is unclear to what extent the forum will consider the wishes of the Iraqi people. Polls from Iraq have consistently rejected the United States' occupation and called for the withdrawal of the United States military, and while one cannot be sure, it seems unlikely that were such a forum held to solicit Iraqis' input on Iraq War policy, increasing the United States' military presence would probably not be an option. If the forum fails to consider the wishes of the Iraqi people or fails to acknowledge that the brunt of the occupation's devastation has been suffered by ordinary Iraqis--the forum runs the risk of being a forum of "benevolent" imperialism by which the United States simply assumes that its wishes for Iraq are in the country's best interest. Moreover, it is unclear how the forum will move from "making individual choices" to "finding common ground for action" if the City Commission is unwilling to consider the possibility of passing a resolution against a war that has cost the City of Grand Rapids over $240 million.