Dana KuhnThree-time Pulitzer Prize winner, 1988 National Book Award winner and long-time New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas L. Friedman spoke at Wednesday’s Assembly Series as part of the University’s Sesquintienial celebration.
“He has helped us understand some of the most important and confusing events of our time,” said Dean Edward Macias in his introduction of Friedman’s speech.
The topic of the lecture was the “Democratic Reconstruction in Iraq.” Friedman explained why he believed that the United States needed to invade Iraq this past spring, describing four reasons for the war. Those reasons included weapons of mass destruction, the moral problems involving human rights abuses, the need for a regime change, and to “burst the terrorism bubble.”
Friedman also said that “[America] completely misunderstood what kind of country we were taking over.” Specifically, the Bush Administration did not understand how impoverished of a country Iraq was outside of Baghdad, and how much infrastructure would be needed for reconstruction.
Nevertheless, Friedman felt that “ultimately this is a war of ideas,” and that in the long run the U.S. could be successful in popping the bubble, by winning over the “silent majority of Iraqis.”
The speech, which was delivered to a full house in the Athletic Complex, was followed by a “Conversation” in Graham Chapel, where the topic was “What Kind of International Borders Will Exist in the 21st Century?”
The objective of the Conversation Series, as stated by moderator James Wertsch, is to create a “forum for reflecting on issues that affect the University, the community, and the world.”
Friedman was joined by Seyla Benhabib, a professor of political science and philosophy at Yale, and by two Washington University professors, namely Leila Sadat, a professor of law and member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and Satadru Sen of the history department. The lively discussion focused around Friedman’s inquiry into the ways international borders were changed by 9/11.
“I thought Thomas Friedman’s speech was very well thought out, but I thought the panel series was not particularly well organized, and that the panelist went on too many tangents,” said senior Andrew Goldstein. “I did appreciate, though, the fact that all the panelists were experts in their field. Yet I noticed that the entire panel was biased to the left, which did not allow for debate coming from both sides of the political spectrum.”
A Minneapolis native, Friedman received his undergraduate degree from Brandeis University, and studied as a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University. In 1988, Friedman won the National Book Award for “From Beirut to Jerusalem,” an account of the decade he spent reporting from the Middle East.
Friedman is also the author of “The Lexus and the Olive Tree,” a socioeconomic investigation of globalization, and “Longitudes and Attitudes,” a collection of columns and essays exploring the world after 9/11.