Diverse panel addresses many aspects of war

In what Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy Dean Stephen Bosworth called "a model discourse in civility and respect," five Tufts and Fletcher professors held a refreshingly calm forum last night on the ongoing war in Iraq.

Each professor spoke about the war from their area of expertise in a program that was so well attended it needed to be simulcast on a screen in the Hall of Flags outside the ASEAN Auditorium.

Professor Leila Fawaz, director of the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, used her time to address the views of the war emanating from people in countries other than the US -- specifically Arab countries.

There are just as diverse opinions between people in Arab countries as between people in the US, Fawaz said, emphasizing the need to differentiate between different regimes. "We must distinguish between rulers and rulers... rulers and populations," she said.

Fawaz spoke of several historical and current opinions of the US invasions frequently held in the Arab world. Western colonization, US self-representation as a liberating force, and the view that the US holds double standards for human rights abuses and democratization are all prominent views among Arab populations, she said.

Political Science professor Tony Smith focused on the future of US diplomacy and multilateralism, and the practical end of major multicultural bodies. Because the US was able to invade Iraq without UN approval, Smith said, the future of the UN is in jeopardy. The UN is "over, at least for the foreseeable future" he said. In addition, Smith said, the war in Iraq marks "the effective end of NATO."

Due to blunders in French and American diplomacy, more general multilateral relations are at risk. "Chirac has set back the future of the European Union," Smith said, and "the prospects don't look very good for European integration."

Smith also stressed that the US was never interested in multilateralism, even before Sept. 11, pointing to the US pulling back on the Kyoto Protocols, the International Criminal Court, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Fletcher professor and former United Nations official Ian Johnstone, in contrast, outlined why the UN can and will maintain legitimacy in light of the US sidestepping the Security Council en route to Iraq. A second UN resolution on Iraq would have had broad support, Johnstone said, and the blame lies on "poor diplomacy."

Furthermore, he said, "Iraq is not the only issue on the Security Council's agenda that is important to the United States," as the UN has been deeply involved both with the war on al Qaeda and the war against Afghanistan.

Dr. Robert Russell, Director and Senior Scientist at the Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center, shared details of the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. Russell was a member of the first UNICEF team to enter Iraq after the first Gulf War.

According to Russell, who was with a team primarily centered around the southern city of Basra, "the situation at the start of this war... is much worse than at the start of the first Gulf War." Basra is the site of the current Gulf War's largest health crisis.

Infant mortality has doubled and mortality at five years of age has tripled since 1991, Russell said. In addition, cases of the waterborne diseases such as typhoid and cholera have increased 1,000 percent. The war will only intensify the problems, Russell said, as the US continues "knocking out the electrical supply needed for water supply and sewage."

Iraqi children have diarrhea 14 days each month on average, he said.

Fletcher International Economics professor Lisa Lynch addressed the economic impact both domestically and globally of the war in Iraq. Though there have been many proposals of the war costs based on a short, successful war, she said, "there's been very little discussion of what the costs of this war would be under different scenarios."

The costs of peacekeeping and reconstruction will affect consumer confidence, the stock market, the amount of business investment, and the price of oil, Lynch said.

Outside of the domestic economy, she said, the failure of war-averting diplomacy will have a "tremendously chilling effect on EU-US trade relations." The Bush administration's "explosive rhetoric" on the Iraq issue will make the US's task of selling globalization to Third World countries much more difficult as well, Lynch said.

Even more foreboding, Lynch said a protracted war "could precipitate a global recession."

The most important lesson of the failed diplomacy with Iraq, Fawaz said, is to "get armed like Korea." North Korea's supposed possession of nuclear weapons has allowed it to avoid similar invasion, she said. "Armament is the preemption of the weak."

The panel's use of professors from a broad array of disciplines is somewhat rare, but a reflection that "this [war] is obviously a unique event," Bosworth said. Fletcher organized similarly broad panels after Sept. 11.