Nearly 90 people attended a talk at RWC on Thursday, May 18, by Dr. Christopher Preble of the Cato Institute. The talk was part of RWC’s International Issues Speaker Series and was co-sponsored by the World Affairs Council and the League of Women Voters.Preble opened with about a 20 minute address, in which he pointed to what he believes to be flaws in the American war in Iraq. Mired in false assumptions and imaginary expectations, the Bush administration has created a huge problem for America and the world, he said. He noted the difficulties of creating democracy at gunpoint. He reviewed the various times and places in American history where such interventions have failed, including the Philippines, Latin America, and Vietnam.
Non-state, people-to-people contact, Preble argued, is the best way for democratic processes to be encouraged in other parts of the world. War and coercion, inherently undemocratic, are unlikely to create free institutions.
Preble expressed concern about the war’s erosion on civil liberties in the United States and the burden it will be placing on the future to pay off the debt. He noted that the United States is burning through cash at a greater rate than the nation did in Vietnam.
While he personally believes that pulling out of Iraq very soon would be the best option, he holds out no hope that it will happen. While polls show the American public has come around to understanding the war was a mistake, they have not yet moved to the position that withdrawal is the best of bad options.
Questions and answers continued for over an hour as people lined up to raise issues about Preble’s comments and Bush foreign policy. In addition to students and WAC members, there was a sizable contingent of students from the Institute for Learning in Retirement.
RWC History Professor John McNay, who coordinated the event here, expressed his thanks to the dean and the staff in College Relations, Media Services, and Facilities Management for all their great assistance in producing what McNay called “another successful program.”
The Cato Institute is a Libertarian think-tank in Washington, D.C.