Five years at war: Iraq exit strategies
Meredith Clinton
Issue date: 4/10/08 Section: News
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.
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.