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Iowans can sway Middle East policy, expert says

By Kathryn Fiegen
Press-Citizen
Posted on Monday April 16, 2007

Iowans are a central part of bringing about policy debate on conflicts in the Middle East, and now is the time to start the conversation, a national expert in Arab American policy said Sunday.

Dr. James Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute, said Iowans have the opportunity to set the tone in how 2008 presidential candidates campaign on the war in Iraq. The Arab American Institute is a Washington, D.C.-based organization that is the political and policy research voice for the Arab American community.

Currently, candidates say two things about the situation in Iraq, he said. Either they support a surge in troops to the area or they want a complete pullout.

Those comments get “cheap applause” but won’t solve problems, Zogby said. Iowans need to be pressing candidates for more answers on how to get out of there and what they think Americans’ responsibility is to the country’s inhabitants.

“That has to be a part of the … debate,” he said. “Make it part of the debate.”

At the beginning of his lecture in front of about 50 people at the Iowa City Public Library, a stop in his tour of Iowa, Zogby painted a grim picture of the current status of Middle Eastern countries, not just Iraq. Recent bombings in Morocco and Algeria, Afghanistan spinning into violence, Palestinian unemployment rates and countries leaving jobs undone in Gaza are all the result of failed policy, he said.

“This administration is determined that the way out of this hole is just to keep digging,” Zogby said. “We have to face the realities that when the hole gets that deep, it’s going to be hard.”

One of the first steps is to really analyze and own up to the situation in Iraq, he said. And to do that, Americans need to become more knowledgeable about the culture and history of the country.

“There are still no detailed classes on the Middle East. Most Americans still can’t point to Iraq on a map,” Zogby said. “If you have to rely on CNN to know what you know on Iraq, then you don’t know. Do you even try to remake a country whose history you don’t know?”

Coralville resident Chris Turner said that while he agreed with Zogby’s assessment of what the United States should be doing in the Middle East, he thought the country should take a more pragmatic look at the issue.

“I think Americans are going to be more constrained by the economic issues and how much money we have wasted over there,” he said.

Two 2008 presidential hopefuls will make stops in the Iowa City area this week. On Friday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, will speak at noon Friday at the Holiday Inn and Conference Center, 1220 First Ave. in Coralville. And on Sunday, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., will speak at an Earth Day rally at 12:45 p.m. on the Pentacrest.