Panelists offered a detailed look at Afghanistan and an assessment of the United States' previous actions and current options during a forum at the Law School Wednesday in response to last week's terrorist attacks.
Panelist Gregory Gleason, an associate political science professor, gave a detailed history of activity in Afghanistan during the last 50 years. Gleason, whose specialty is Central Asia and specifically Afghanistan, spoke of the social unrest that has plagued the country.
He discussed constant shifts in power, including Afghani rebels expelling British troops from the area, the overthrow of leadership by Russian forces and the United States' funding of rebel troops who overthrew Russian forces in an effort to eradicate communism.
He said that troops the United States aided in the late 1980s were later overthrown by the Taliban, which now rules Afghanistan, because it promised peace.
"Basically, the United States pulled out as soon as the Russians were out of the area and pretended that they had no role in what was going on in the region," Gleason said.
With the country in a constant state of war for the past 20 years, Gleason said that Afghanistan had little time to rebuild and more than 5 million of its people are near starvation.
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Gleason said that while United States intervention is inevitable, it is important to draw on history when considering how it should be done.
"All I can say is that I would strongly advise against leaving Pakistan in charge of Afghanistan, which is an option being discussed, because it will only lead to a continuation of the unrest we have seen for years in this area," he said.
Panelist Mark Peceny, an associate political science professor, specializes in foreign policy and painted a very dark picture of the United States' current military options.
Peceny said that because Afghanistan has basically been at war during the last 20 years, it is not susceptible to conventional war tactics that the United States is now considering.
He said bombing would not work because the country has little to bomb. Peceny said special operations troops would fail because terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden is protected by the Taliban and knows the region. He added that conventional ground troops would fail because they would be engaged in guerrilla warfare.
"Iraq poses a greater threat to the United States and is a more conventional opponent less likely to head to the hills and fight in a guerrilla format," he said. "It has not been discussed much, but war with Iraq is an option."
Panelist Mo Jamshidi is a professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department who directs the Center of Autonomous Control Engineering and has been a consultant for NASA and a National Science Foundation visitor to Yugoslavia.
Jamshidi, who is Muslim, said the attacks did not reflect the principles of Islam.
He said that, more importantly, last week's disaster reflects a need for the United States to recognize its global interests.
"We must not ignore international issues and wait for disasters like this to draw our attention to problems going on in the rest of the world," he said. "People in the Muslim world largely love America, but they disagree with America's foreign policy. They are wary of what the United States will do, but they do not hate this country - it remains a beacon of freedom."
Panelist Tim Canova, an associate law professor who teaches international business law, said that as horrible and unexpected as last week's attack was, it could have been predicted given the United States' past policy toward the Middle East. Referring to the Persian Gulf War, he said it is dangerous to conduct wars where we don't see who we're affecting.
"We were told we won that war, but I'm not so sure," he said. "We liberated the oil fields, restored a monarchy in Kuwait, left a madman in power in Iraq and I'm afraid our 5,000 casualties just came in last week."
Canova urged people to consider implementing a form of the Marshall Plan, which he said means the United States would pump funding into areas such as the Middle East to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. He said such moves would settle some of the issues that have upset Arabs and likely caused the terrorist attacks.
"As much as we place blame on others, we need to look at ourselves and what we can do to help others," he said. "I suggest that this is the end of our complacency and that we begin using the resources we have to do some real good."
Panelist Jennifer Moore, an associate law professor who teaches human rights, refugee and asylum law, previously worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She emphasized the importance for the United States to recognize the rules of engagement and its agreement to the Geneva Convention, which limits the way a country can respond to being attacked.
"We cannot fight terrorism with terrorism," she said.
