Friday, August 22, 2008
The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics will begin its Dole Forum series this year with “Iraq: What Went Wrong? What’s Next?”
The event will feature three expert speakers on the war in Iraq.
The speakers include Adrian R. Lewis, professor of history, retired Col. Kevin Benson and Donald Wright, author of “On Point II: Transition to the New Campaign. The U.S. Army in Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, May 2003 to January 2005,” the Army’s official history of the war in Iraq.
Bill Lacy, director of the Dole Institute, said he wanted to remind students of the importance of the Iraq War in the upcoming presidential election.
“I think, number one, that this is arguably the most pressing issue the next president is going to face,” Lacy said. “What we tried to do is structure a program that would focus on what hasn’t worked, what’s gone wrong and at the same time, what we can do about it.”
Wright said he thought the lecture would be important to dispell a lot of the false assumptions concerning the war.
“There has been a lot of questioning during this period,” Wright said. “All of it has forced Americans to ask themselves ‘What are we willing to do in the name of national defense? Give up rights to make our nation more secure?’”
Wright’s book focuses on the Army’s reaction to the war. He said the book’s readers have been surprised that the Army would disclose unfavorable information about itself.
“The purpose of the book is to tell the story and for the Army and its members to learn from it,” Wright said. “Civilians sometimes don’t understand that the Army is trying very diligently to learn from its mistakes.”
Lewis, also the director of the University’s Fort Leavenworth Program, soon to be called the Office of Graduate Professional Military Education, said he thought people were a bit confused as to what was really going on in the war.
“There are a lot of myths about the war in Iraq, I see it on TV all the time and it’s completely wrong,” Lewis said.
As a liaison between Fort Leavenworth and KU, Lewis helps push certain programs to help officers earn advanced degrees related to special operations, local government and special agencies, and areas and cultures of the world.
Benson will also be a speaker at the forum. As a retired colonel for the Army, Benson, was director of plans at the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom from July 2002 to July 2003.
Lewis said the forum would raise issues that should be important to students.
“This country is at war and people aren’t really paying attention because there isn’t a draft,” Lewis said. “We are spending over $100 billion a year on this and it translates to money that doesn’t get spent on health care, highways, universities even. It affects every American.”
The forum begins at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 24 at the Dole Institute.
— -Edited by Brieun Scott
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