A woman traversed war-ravaged Iraq in a black robe and head scarf in 1991 following the withdrawal of American troops, witnessing firsthand the atrocities inflicted on the Kurdish Shiite population by Saddam Hussein and his henchmen.
This same woman stood in front of an audience of 40 at the Penn Bookstore Monday evening.
"We have a moral obligation in Iraq right now," Philadelphia Inquirer foreign affairs columnist Trudy Rubin said. "I saw what happened last time we made promises to Iraqis and then broke them. There is no way out but forward."
Rubin was on campus for a discussion and signing of her new book Willful Blindness: The Bush Administration and Iraq, a compilation of her columns from July 2002 to June 2004. In her opinion, these columns demonstrate the Bush administration's conscious refusal to inform itself about the possible realities it would face in post-war Iraq. The currently boiling insurgency, Rubin maintains, is an "outgrowth of willful blindness."
At the outset, Rubin emphasized that this was not a Bush-bashing book, but rather a "record of administrative policy."
A Middle East expert, Rubin proceeded to assess the current state of affairs in Iraq, banking on her experiences during the four visits she has made to the country in the last 18 months.
Rubin detailed what she called the flawed thinking that fueled the Bush administration's false expectations about Iraq.
She told of a conversation she had with Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowicz, in which he drew a parallel between the Iraqi regime change and post-World War II French liberation when then-French president Charles de Gaulle established democracy in the country.
Rubin was not surprised, then, when Wolfowicz later told her he would be "astonished" if there was instability in Iraq after the war.
While these charges were stinging, Rubin elicited the greatest response from the audience with her vivid description of the rabid looting in Iraq.
She told the story of a security guard who took refuge at Baghdad University, as equipment, air-conditioning units and even doors were stolen from the premises. At one point, looters walked into the rare manuscript library, a national treasure, and torched it to ashes. Rubin explained that many Iraqis believe the looting is organized by the American government in an effort to render the country subservient to its wishes.
Rubin said that, while it is doubtful that elections will be viewed as legitimate by the Iraqi people, they are the best hope for stability and they must go through.
"Iraq is a schizophrenic place," she said. "People curse Americans but don't want Americans to leave because they are afraid of civil war."
Audience members appreciated the experience Rubin brought to the table.
"This was especially useful since she has spent a good deal of time in Iraq, so she is not politically interested, but rather interested in the broader picture," College senior Jeff Weston said.
