By Amanda Farda, Staff Writer
The Day of Dialogue VII, subtitled "A New Direction for the United States and the World?" took place at the University on Wednesday, October 28.
A discussion titled "U.S. Involvement in Afghanistan," featured special guest Scott Ritter and Hofstra guest Julian Ku.
Ritter is a former intelligence officer for the Marine Corps and a former United Nations Weapons Inspector in Iraq. He started his portion of the discussion by talking about how he was in the minority when he spoke out against the idea of there being weapons of mass destruction in Afghanistan, only later would he be proven right. Ritter believes the attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001 are a crime and should be dealt with as a criminal issue by law enforcement rather than military forces.
He said military operations in Iraq are futile and gave the example of the military going to uproot ten militants in a mountainous region. By trying to remove ten militants, 100 militants will rise up in opposition against the military because they oppose foreigners. "There is no military solution in Afghanistan today…were back to ground zero in Afghanistan."
Julian Ku is a professor at the Hofstra School of Law. He's a lawyer with a law degree from Yale University. He talked about the United Nations and how its charter is used to prevent major wars and control military forces from different countries. Afghanistan came to the agreement that after 9/11, military forces were needed in their country; Ku called it a "legally viable place for military action." He said not only American troops occupy Afghanistan; troops of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are stationed in Afghanistan and Japan has sent military support even though they haven't sent troops in. To say there is no military solution in Afghanistan is, "to easy an answer."
Ku believes military action cannot fix the problems of Afghanistan alone, but when it's pared with help from the international community, progress can be made.
According to him, leaving Afghanistan alone in the hopes that it will mend itself is a gamble because one of two things could happen; Afghanistan could fester in its own chaos and leave other countries alone or it could fester in chaos and unleash another attack on the U.S. At least by keeping troops in Afghanistan, we reduce the risk of another attack on American soil.''