Hofstra professor comes to UM, calls Iraq war a failure

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The Socialist and Marxist Studies Series welcomed a Hoftstra University professor to the University of Maine on Thursday as part of the Howard B. Schonberger Peace and Social Justice Memorial Lecture Series. The lecture guest spoke of the occupation of Germany compared to Iraq.

Hoftstra University Professor Carolyn Eisenberg presented her speech titled, “Re-creating Post-War Germany in Iraq: A Tale of Two Occupations,” with ideas on the occupation of Germany and why it ended up a success, compared to the current occupation in Iraq. The current occupation of Iraq which is, in her terms, a failure.

“The lack of legitimacy, the lack of adequate troops, corruption and the absence of social and political base for the American agenda. This experience in Iraq has been, in many respects, a much greater failure than that of Germany,” Eisenberg said.

Ann Schonberger, professor of mathematics at UMaine, praised Eisenberg for her speech.

“We thought it was a really good thing to have somebody talk about the connection with the history of foreign policy, namely the occupation of Germany and for World War II, compared to the occupation in Iraq, which is timely because it is going on right now,” Schonberger said.

UMaine Professor of History Elizabeth McKillen opened with remarks describing Eisenberg’s views on the controversial topic.

“Her major argument that the United States rather than the Soviet Union was primarily responsible for the division of Germany proved quite controversial among traditional historians,” McKillen said.

For second-year graduate student Peggy Solic, this concept seemed shocking.

“I thought her stance was really fascinating,” Solic said. “I had never thought about the connection between the German occupation and the occupation of Iraq. I think it is incredibly interesting, and I think she makes a really good argument.”

Eisenberg said, despite what people hear of the success in Iraq, the public cannot be naïve.

“Even if we set aside the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, the killing of those 4,000 American soldiers, the continued failure of the Iraq economy to the poverty and the lack of electricity, water and even not to mention jobs, it’s important to notice that, as of now, [with] all claims of success with our American troops there, that there really is no reliable indication that they will be leaving anytime soon,” Eisenberg said.

Solic said she agrees Iraq is a failure. For many reasons, she thinks Iraq is a situation that is hard to fix and compare.

“I do think Iraq is a failure, and I definitely think we’re there for the wrong reasons, but I think at this point it is hard because we have already done so much,” Solic said. “It’s hard to go in to a country and occupy it, then just leave it. So in terms of fixing Iraq, I’m a little stumped as to what to do because we don’t have a model to look back on, since west Germany’s occupation was such a different case.”

• UM history professors plan Tuesday teach-in about war in Iraq (October 23, 2006)
• Marxist lecture calls for end of war (March 27, 2006)
• Lecturer calls Afghan war just, necessary, winnable (February 15, 2010)
• Columnist, commentator to speak on war in Iraq (April 10, 2003)
• Lecture blames Iraq violence on U.S. war (March 26, 2007)

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009, 1:04 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.