Students and community members filled a Dodd lecture hall Friday
afternoon to hear California Congressman Howard Berman, Stanford
professor Steve Krasner and Los Angeles Times columnist Robert
Scheer battle it out over a war in Iraq.
All three have ties to the issue. Berman, D-Van Nuys, is a
member of the House Committee on International Relations and the
subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. Krasner teaches
international relations and Scheer is a syndicated columnist known
for his anti-war position.
“Do not kid yourself about whether or not he has weapons
of mass destruction,” said Berman. “He has them. I
believe, watching him for 20 years, he has more than we know and we
know that he has a lot.”
“The reason I know we have this evidence is because any
inspector I’ve talked to has indicated that and these are
employees of the U.N.,” he added.
But while Berman made his case for war, Scheer said disarmament
efforts have been effective and should continue.
“What is the danger of waiting four months to let the
inspectors the French have asked for to go in?” Scheer
asked.
“There is no evidence that (Saddam Hussein’s)
ability to wage war is increasing,” he said.
Berman and Krasner, who did not agree with Scheer, felt that the
threat from Iraq needs to be confronted now.
“In the end, the danger to us in doing nothing and
delaying this confrontation is greater than the danger that we face
now,” Berman said.
Krasner brushed off concerns about the economic motives of a
war.
“If we were doing it for oil we would have done it
before,” he said. “We are doing it because Saddam has
weapons of mass destruction.”
Concerns with the current status of transatlantic relations were
also addressed and Berman expressed concern with the status of
foreign relations.
“The fact is there is a serious problem here,” he
said. “We have not been able to persuade our traditional
allies about the correctness of our position and that is something
to think about”
Students who attended the panel event, which was organized by
the Burkle Center for International Relations and the UCLA
International Institute, seemed to appreciate the benefits of the
information provided.
“It gave both perspectives about the issue, and I thought
that was the most helpful aspect of it,” said Benjamin
Afshani, a first-year political science student.
“It allowed individuals who have studied this for decades
to give their perspective,” he added.
Jospeh Yeftadounaee, a third-year psychology student agreed.
“I really enjoyed Congressman Berman and Professor
Krasner’s views,” he said. “I also did like
hearing Robert Scheer even though I basically didn’t agree
with anything he said.”