EPIC: Education for Peace in Iraq Center: The 2003 Iraq Forum
A SHORT HISTORY of WESTERN IMPERIALISM in IRAQ Judith Yaphe, PhD is a Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University. She is a specialist in Middle Eastern political analysis with special focus on security issues. She is the author of two books, The Strategic Implications of a Nuclear-Armed Iran and The Middle East in 2015 and has written a number of articles on Iraq in RUSI International Security Review , Human Rights and Governance in the Middle East, Middle East Policy and The Washington Quarterly. She received a BA with Honors in History from Moravian College and a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern History from the University of Illinois. Yaphe was the recipient of the Intelligence Medal of Commendation during the second Gulf War.
SNIP
Evening Public Lecture: A State of the Movement Address
EVENING KEYNOTE LECTURE
Ray McGovern was a CIA analyst for 27 years and is on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. He is co-director of the Servant Leadership School, an outreach ministry in inner city Washington D.C.
Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, IV served as a member of the U.S. Diplomatic Service from 1976 until 1998. From 1988 to 1991, Ambassador Wilson served in Baghdad as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy. As acting Ambassador during "Desert Shield," he was responsible for the negotiations that resulted in the release of several hundred American hostages. He was the last official American to meet with Saddam Hussein before the launching of "Desert Storm." Ambassador Wilson graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1972. He has been decorated as a Commander in the Order of the Equatorial Star by the Government of Gabon and as an Admiral in the El Paso Navy by the El Paso County Commissioners. He is married to the former Valerie Plame and has four children.
These EPIC people are like roaches.
For those who may be familiar with it, the National Defense College is is organized under the authority of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it's home for example to the National War College.
"A SHORT HISTORY of WESTERN IMPERIALISM in IRAQ."
Well, "Iraq" is a product of French and British “Imperialism” - that’s how we ended up with a bunch of Kurds, Turkmen, Shities and Sunni all conglomerated into an attempt at a unitary "state" - if yoy write about the political history of Iraq prior to the 1960s that’s what you are writing about, and if you are writing about Iraqi history since then, you are writing largely about Iraqi reactions to that experience.
Some here may not like the conclusion of this study, But IMO it's a Good Thing that such points of view are put forward even if policy makers my ultimately decide to fault the judgment behind them - for example one the reasons we we so ill prepared after our initial success in Iraq was that many policy makers had been trying very hard not to listen to such concerns, and as a result didn't plan for the results of this history on a "what if" basis.
This thread is just too depressing.