As a United States diplomat, he coordinated foreign policy in
numerous African countries and served in Baghdad. As a political
adviser, he served in the Clinton administration. As a CEO, he
manages an international business corporation.
But on Friday, Joseph Wilson came to the
“Represent!” event at the UCLA Hammer Museum as an
American citizen who wanted to promote student voting and political
activism.
“Students need to have their voices heard just like every
other demographic of the American population, but even more so
because this is their future we are talking about,” he
said.
Wilson, the last U.S. diplomat to meet with former Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein before Operation Desert Storm in 1991, stressed the
importance of student political activism in light of current U.S.
and international politics.
Wilson presented his views on the U.S. war in Iraq and said the
dispatch of United Nations weapons inspectors to Iraq to
investigate Hussein’s alleged possession of weapons of mass
destruction was an appropriate step, and the war was not.
The war, which largely turned public opinion in the
international community against the United States and sparked a
number of protests around the globe, will have serious
repercussions, Wilson said. He cited increased alienation of the
United States as one consequence.
“Now you have a good part of the world that thinks we
represent a bigger threat to national security than does Osama bin
Laden,” he said.
Another effect of the war, Wilson said, was an increase in the
pool of people from which terrorists can recruit followers.
Wilson has a personal connection to the Bush
administration’s reasons for going to war. Recently,
Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA agent, had
her identity leaked and many allege the Bush administration leaked
it in response to Wilson’s anti-war stance.
Before the war, Wilson was one of the critics who questioned the
legitimacy of the Bush administration’s claims that Hussein
purchased uranium from Nigeria.
Administration officials deny they leaked Plame’s
identity. An FBI investigation into the leak is under way.
“I think that it is important to understand that the crime
that was committed wasn’t a crime against me. It wasn’t
a crime against my wife. It was a crime against the national
security of this country,” Wilson said about the
investigation.
“What they have done is that they have exposed a national
security asset and they have done it essentially because they are
determined that their political agenda was more important than the
national security of my country. And that should not be
forgotten,” he added.
Wilson encouraged those in attendance of the event to
participate in politics, and he assured them their views can have
an effect.
“Based on my experience, which is now rather well-known
around the country, voices will be heard when voices are
raised,” he said.
Despite his political positions, Wilson said he presents his
views on the war as a simple American citizen.
“I don’t come at this as an ideological man. I come
at this as an American who feels that my government has betrayed
the ideals for which I stood up 30 years ago and swore an oath to
defend,” he said.