The Philosophy Club, the Political Science Honors Society, and Democracy Now Tri-Cities held a forum on the topic of Iraq. The goal was to inform the public about solutions to be made about the ongoing war.
The Philosophy Club president, Jason Hurd, kicked off the forum with a statement to explain what they wanted to accomplish by meeting that night. “The forum, The Future of the Iraq War: A Forum Concerning Solutions in Iraq, was a follow-up of last semester’s forum on the Iraq War, and was intended to be informative as well as start discussions on this very important topic,” Hurd said.
The Philosophy Club in conjunction with their co-sponsors, wanted to make the forum very different from last semester’s forum, which was critiquing our reasons for going into Iraq. Hurd said, “(This) is why we decided to focus on solutions to the situation in Iraq.”
The forum opened up with Dr. David Briley from the political science department. Briley said, “What I tried to do was not suggest a solution per se but to give a historical and constitutional framework in which the two political branches battle over the making of foreign policy.” He believes that this is important because most Americans do not understand the ins and outs of American politics and how this also relates in the makings of foreign policy.
“The Constitution provides an invitation to struggle in this area of foreign policy,” Briley said. He explains that it is stated in the Constitution that the president is the commander in chief but Congress controls the money and can declare war.
This causes a struggle between the legislative bodies.
Briley gave an example of the struggle between the president and Congress that occurred in 1947 during the post-WWII era. “With the formation of the National Security Council and the Joint Chiefs gave a greater centralization of power in the presidency,” he said.
Briley also discussed the details of the War Powers Act of 1973 in the historical context in which it took place, which was right at the end of the Vietnam War. “Every president with the possible exception of Jimmy Carter has thought that this legislation was unconstitutional, but acts as if it is constitutional,” he said.
He gave several examples of conflict over the question stating that, “Congress is unwilling to live up to the Paris Peace Accords and cut off military appropriations to South Vietnam in 1975 and the threats to pull the plug on the military mission in Lebanon in 1983 and the troop buildup in Desert Shield in 1990.”
Dr. Al-Imad a Middle East expert, was also a panelist at the forum. She discussed three possibilities in Iraq, and possible scenarios, and then supported her view.
“The three possibilities that I am presenting are the immediate withdrawal of troops, time-table withdrawal, and reinforcement,” Al-Imad said.
She advocated a time-table withdrawal, suggesting that giving Iraq one year to stabilize their government, “and could give them a needed boost.”
Al-Imad did not think that we should withdrawal completely after one year but suggested keeping troops around the sideline for as long as we feel it is needed.
Ray Perry, an ETSU Alumnus, advocated troop reinforcement. He said, “we should listen to our generals and do what is necessary to insure the safety of our troops.” Perry did not promote a time-table withdrawal. Perry said he believes that attacks such as 9/11 may have taken as long as 10 years to plan and go through. “Since terrorists are generally fighting for their religion, and they are willing to sacrifice their own lives for their cause,” he said.
This, Perry said, makes the terrorist more likely to wait a year after we pull our troops out of Iraq before striking again.”
Ray also suggested that leaving some troops to guard the border, while pulling all the others out, would be unsafe and unfair to those troops.
The Philosophy Club would like to thank their co-sponsors; the Political Science Honors Society and the Democracy Now Tri-Cities.
They also want to thank the audience members who came out that evening. They appreciate the support, and they hope that the forum was informative as well as discussion-provoking.

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