Iraq War Forum: Knowledge from Combat Zones to Classrooms

(This article was published in the May 2007 issue of the Mount Observer.)

Last month, three consecutive Fridays were dedicated to what was known as the Iraq War Forum, an informative gathering involving one film and two guest speakers, with topics ranging from civilian casualties to soldiers suffering from medical neglect, summarized in one grave statement: the situation in Iraq has gone terribly, terribly wrong.

One of the persons responsible for establishing the Iraq War Forum was Professor Yoav Elinevsky. He organized this forum in hopes of encouraging more students to take part in both debate and awareness of situations occurring in Iraq.

"I desire to puon much needed discussions among citizens who are concerned with this war in Iraq every day," Prof. Elinevsky said. "There are many citizens in America who are directly affcted by the war's outcome, yet may not necessarily know vital facts to properly assess this war's worth, which can be alleviated through talking with other citizens."

Beginning on April 13, in the North Cafeteria, the hour-long film, “The Ground Truth,” had shown the war's unwhetting appetite for carnage, destruction, and inhumanity with graphic images of mangled corpses and dismembered survivors, and stories from soldiers who suffer from the shock and trauma of fallen comrades and innocent civilians, and worse, never understanding for what purpose.

One major point to the film describes the inertia brought on by an enemy entrenched with the civilian population itself, which has left many Americans soldiers in a constant state of reaction, making it almost impossible to differentiate between innocents and the immediate threat.

On April 20, in room 127, Tyler Boudreau shares his experience in Iraq, during his tour in 2004, as an infantry company commander in the Marine Corps. As a man who proudly served twelve years of active duty, he passionately supports the necessity of the military to secure the Untied States of threats, foreign and domestic. Mr. Boudreau could never be dismissed as one who dogmatically opposes war as a principle in itself, so his position against the War in Iraq is one based on military doctrine and pragmaticism. “I think the problems we, as a nation, face in Iraq are not exclusively due to mismanagement or a few minor flaws in the decision making process,” Mr. Boudreau said. “There is a major flaw in the mission itself, and a fundamental paradox between the methods defined in the Counterinsurgency manual, written by General Petraeus (Commander of Multi-National Forces-Iraq), and the inherent nature of the military.”

“Our troops are being placed, every moment of every day, into situations that pit their survival against the success of our mission,” Mr. Boudreau said. “As long as this is the case, we can never win, and I believe, therefore, that we have the moral obligation to bring them home right now.”

Mr. Boudreau had written an editorial for the Daily Hampshire Gazette entitled, Some Common Ground, in the March 29, 2007 issue. A copy has been posted into his personal blog: http://deeperthanwars.blogspot.com/2007/04/in-search-of-common-ground.html

In his editorial, Mr. Boudreau explains in direct perspective as an experienced officer why he believes the War in Iraq is unwinnable. On April 27, in room 127, David Entin, who recently retired as vice president for academic affairs at Holyoke Community College, presented the parallels between mistakes made in the Vietnam Conflict and those currently enacted in Iraq.

Mr. Entin served two years in Vietnam, 1966-1968, within the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID.) Mr. Entin had noted that currently Secretary of State Rice has employed AID workers in Iraq for essentially the same purposes as when sent into Vietnam forty years ago, and as Mr. Entin fears, with probably similar ineffective results.

“In both situations, history has shown that our chief executives, Presidents Lyndon Johnson and George W. Bush, really misled us into our initial military involvement and then felt the need to escalate to supposedly win,” said Mr. Entin. “What we should have learned from Vietnam is that the U.S. cannot send soldiers into a distant and foreign land and expect a conversion into a democratic and capitalist regime just because we want that outcome.” Mr. Entin had written a guest column in the April 2, 2007 issue of the Daily Hampshire Gazette, entitled, Repeating the Mistakes in Vietnam.