Experts Criticize Proposed Military Action in Iraq

Four experts gathered last night at Boylston Hall to criticize military action against Iraq.

The speakers represented a range of disciplines and included a doctor, a politician and two human rights activists.

About 40 people attended the panel, which was co-sponsored by the Society of Arab Students, The South Asian Women’s collective, the Harvard College Greens and the Progressive Student Labor Movement.

All the speakers said oil was a motive underlying the Bush administration’s move towards war with Iraq.

“This is as much about resources of mass consumption as weapons of mass destruction,” said Kevin Murray, executive director of the human rights organization Grassroots International.

Panelist Dr. Miguel Hernan, instructor at the Harvard School of Public Health, said he thought America should pursue economic sanctions against Iraq instead of going to war.

He cited his own experiences visiting Iraq as part of a 1996 research team, which found that sanctions had less effect on Iraqi child mortality and malnutrition than had previously been thought.

His team was accompanied by reporters from the TV program “60 Minutes.”

“They were asking us to find houses where things were really, really bad so they could show them on TV here. We couldn’t find any,” he said.

The speakers also attacked the Bush administration’s domestic policy.

Massachusetts State Representative Byron Rushing said that he felt the current administration aimed for the “Americanization” of the world.

He said the government was too focused on American superiority.

He also criticized the way that the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have been called heroes, “as though they were actively protecting America.”

The panelists also discussed the challenge war with Iraq could present to individual rights.

“The Bush administration has eroded civil liberties,” said Marlyn Tadros, former director of the Legal Research and Resource Center for Human Rights in Egypt. “It is as if I am seeing Egypt all over again - here! In the land of the free!” she said.

Tadros said American policies in the Middle East are seen as politically motivated, rather than humanitarian.

“People laugh in our faces when we talk about human rights,” she said. “We have lost even the little progress we managed to make.”

Tadros said that other Arab countries agreed that Iraq was a threat, but that US policy in the Middle East was hypocritical.

“We do believe that Saddam Hussein is a maniac,” she said. “But why is he singled out? There are other maniacs out there. One of them is [President of Israel Ariel] Sharon.”

The speakers also discussed the merits of a military response to Hussein.

Murray pointed out that both the CIA and British intelligence suggested non-violent containment was the best way of dealing with Hussein.

“If you attack him, he’ll attack you,” said Tadros.

“You don’t need to be a senior intelligence official to work that out,” said Murray.