Iraqis and others discuss war

Amid growing tensions over war in Iraq, organizers of the panel "To Fight or Not to Fight" provided their audience a respectful discussion with varying viewpoints and perspectives on the current conflict.

The discussion -- which invited students and faculty to speak in Braker 01 on Thursday -- became charged at times as panelists talked about personal and emotional issues surrounding the war.

An intense dialogue arose between two Tufts seniors who were born in Iraq and lived much of their lives under Saddam's regime. Although they both agreed, along with other panelists, that the regime should be taken out of power, they disagreed sharply on the US's decision to go to war.

"I think a lot of good can come of this war -- call me an optimist," Iraqi senior Firend Zora said. He acknowledged that the fighting was frightening for him, as he still has relatives in Iraq, but praised the United States for sincerely developing more accurate weapons. He also applauded the US's record with rebuilding democracies.

Since World War II, Zora said, this has been "the most just war" that America has fought. He also said that the war was the only solution at this point, and that it was "12 years too late" to remove Saddam's regime from power.

But the attempt to remove Hussein's regime comes at the wrong time, said Rana Abdul-Aziz, another Iraqi senior and IR major. Although removing the regime would stop much of the suffering in Iraq, the US should have attempted further diplomacy, Abdul-Aziz said.

Though she acknowledged that Hussein's regime is atrocious, Abdul-Aziz said that unseating the regime so suddenly would "take away the glue that holds together Iraq." Because of the current cultural and political chaos in Iraq, a "fragmentation of the country" is inevitable if he is taken out of power, she said.

The other panelists also had diverse opinions and offered new perspectives on the war.

France, Russia, Germany and China are preserving their good relations with Iraq -- and maintaining their source of oil -- by not supporting the war, said senior engineer and Primary Source contributor Brandon Balkind.

Though the US is perceived to lack international support for the war, those four countries "are all just as self-interested as the US" in their stances on the war, Balkind said.

But carrying out the war may send the wrong message, senior and anti-war activist Craig Wenner said. "Victory can't be glorious. The Administration and public see it as glorious to liberate people by waging a great war," he said.

Diplomacy would have been a better way to deal with Hussein's regime, said Reverend Ben Tousley, a Unitarian Universalist. He cited his childhood in Ireland as a large factor in his current stance on war. I saw "a lot of suffering, sadness and misery" and how the "will to fight perpetuated conflict" while growing up in the midst of the struggle between Catholics and Protestants, Tousley said.

Megan Liotta, former editor of The Primary Source, said that the US had no choice but to go to war. "We can employ our own evil to remove another evil... or leave evil alone," Liotta said

Allowing the Iraqi people to rise up against Saddam would have been ideal, but it is no longer an option, she said.

Both Zora and Abdul-Aziz also shared similarly emotional stories about their ties to Iraq, which highlighted the emotional mood at the panel.

Zora was born and lived much of his life as a Catholic Communist in Iraq. He recounted how his relatives and neighbors were tortured by members of Hussein's regime.

"Every once in a while a student would be missing or a neighbor would be missing," Zora said.

In fact, Zora may not have been at the panel to tell his story if Hussein had been successful. Zora's mother was forced to flee her home while she was pregnant when Hussein began a campaign to exterminate Communists living in Iraq.

Abdul-Aziz's family was vacationing in the US when the Gulf War broke out and decided to stay in the US despite beginning a life here with merely "30 days worth of luggage."

One discouraged student asked panel members at the end of the discussion how she was supposed to keep hope in humanity when there seemed to be no clear answer to the Iraqi situation. But this question spurred a much more buoyant thought from Liotta.

"It's always a positive when things are shaken up and people realize their assumptions are not really what they thought. I am happy to see people come out [of the panel] with their minds not made up," Liotta said.