The U.S. bid to promote a stable democracy in Iraq is in trouble according to Dr. Graham Leonard, a scholar and missionary with over 30 years experience in Middle Eastern affairs. “The occupation has been a disaster from day one,” he said. “Soon we will be in Iraq longer than World War II and there’s no end in sight.”
Last year, Leonard spent five weeks in Iraq with the 2/278th Tennessee National Guard Unit as an embedded journalist and translator and another three weeks with a Christian Peacemaker Team.
During his stay he conversed with soldiers and civilians in areas in and around Baghdad and Tikrit.
Leonard, an East Tennessee native, shared his experiences last Thursday with a gathering of students and faculty at a public lecture hosted by ETSU’s history department
According to Leonard, coalition forces are stretched thin. “We’ve never really gotten police control of Iraq,” he said, indicating that several factors have contributed to the chaos, including poor planning, a lack the manpower and internal conflicts present long before American forces arrived.
Leonard, who did not support the decision to go to war, was critical of U.S. intelligence gathering. “If we were really interested in terrorism, we would have stayed in Afghanistan. The occupation of Iraq has doubled the number of terrorists,” he said.
Leonard also cited deficiencies in the intelligence gathering capabilities of ground forces in Iraq, stating that of the nearly 7,500 interpreters used by U.S. forces, nearly all were Iraqi. “The U.S. has virtually no agents in the Middle East,” he said, adding that, “the U.S. has outsourced its intelligence gathering to Israel.”
Leonard contested the notion that the Iraq insurgency was comprised solely of foreign-born individuals. “If all the foreigners dropped dead tonight, the insurgency would still go on,” he said.
The rising civilian death toll and the failure of American forces to protect culturally important sites have led to the formation of a popular insurgency. The shortage of troops has compounded the lack of order. “We do not have enough troops to patrol Iraq,” he said.
Leonard believes a gradual U.S. withdrawal should be implemented, beginning with the replacement of U.S. troops by Iraqi or Muslim police forces in the towns and cities of Iraq.
Leonard remains skeptical of democracy building efforts in Iraq and questioned the genuine interests of the United States. “The propaganda that we’re building a democracy in the Middle East is a joke,” he said.
Leonard pointed to the recent elections in Palestine in which Hamas prevailed. The democratization of Iraq may depend on the opinion of the observer. “Can they ever have a democracy like us?” Leonard asked rhetorically, “Whether they vote the way we do or choose the type of government we have is immaterial.”
According to Leonard, the conflicting ideologies of the Iraqi people present the greatest impediment to achieving democracy. The Iraqi people tend to vote in blocks based on cultural and religious identity, not as individuals.
“You cannot have democracy without individuality,” Leonard said. “If you vote as a block, you can’t have flexibility.”
Leonard gave the U.S. media an average grade in its coverage of Iraq, explaining that although the vast majority of journalists in Iraq were eager to cover events, safety issues made it hard to do so. “Very few of our journalists can go out,” he said. “It’s too dangerous.”
Sixty-one journalists have been killed in Iraq since 2003. By comparison, 68 were killed in World War II.
When asked to compare coverage between U.S. and Arabic news services, Leonard answered that each possessed its own prejudices, and encouraged the audience to view the situation with a more critical eye.
“It’s the responsibility of the public to find the truth,” he said, “If our public were better educated, certain things wouldn’t happen.”
Leonard, who speaks fluent Arabic, holds a doctorate in education from Harvard University and later went on to several international posts, including teaching positions in Beirut, Ramallah and Beijing.

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