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| Moderator Alana Shuckett, standing, introduces panel members, from left, Dr. Shak Hanish, Dr.Jiryes Haddad, and Dr. Sonia Ghattas- Soliman (seated) and standing behind her, obscured, Dr. Todd Myers |
EL CAJON – College campuses are often the hotbed of discussion and debate regarding controversial issues. Grossmont College is certainly no exception and offers opportunities for dialogue, debate and sharing.
Recently one such event was held on campus to discuss the
situations in Syria and Egypt. Panelists asserted that the United States should
try to bring parties together in Syria and should refrain from taking any
action in Egypt.
Dr. Sonia Ghattas-Soliman, an Egyptian who serves on the
World Languages faculty at Grossmont College, said that in the era following
the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi , Egyptians“would like to solve their
problems by themselves.”
Further, she said, “the Egyptians don’t want military
aid” from the United States because it comes with too many conditions. She said
these include a requirement that “Egypt does not attack Israel”; that the
United States has free access to the Suez Canal; and that the U.S. has full
access to the skies above Egypt.
She said that the American arms that go to Egypt are
required to be carried by U.S. ships and must be received by American agents.
She said the many Egyptians who are pacifists, say stop the aid.
Fellow panelist Dr. Shak Hanish of National University’s
Department of Social Sciences said one constructive action the United States
could take towards Syria would be to work in concert with the Russia to
persuade rebel leaders and Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad to negotiate an
end to the Civil War.
In addition, said Hanish, who is from Iraq, the U.S.
should pressure such allies in the Middle East as Qatar and Saudi Arabia “to
stop interfering and selling arms.”
He expressed the wish that if the United States used its
drones to attack anyone in Syria, it would be against al-Qaeda forces that have
penetrated the country from the outside.
Stressing the danger of Al Qaeda, Dr. Ghattas-Soliman
said that in the short time that Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood were in power
in Egypt, they allowed Al Qaeda to establish terrorist cells in the northern
portion of the Sinai Desert. She said that Al Qaeda has been responsible for
killings of soldiers and officers the desert peninsula and the Muslim
Bortherhood is to blame for the burning and destruction of Christian churches
in Egypt.
A third panelist, Prof. Jiryes Haddad of the World
Languages Departments at San Diego City College, said that much of the
turbulence in the Middle East today can be traced to American intervention in
Iraq. The toppling of the strong central government of Saddam Hussein had the
effect of turning “Iraq into the backyard of Iran” and propelling Iran into the
position of a super power in the Middle East, said Haddad, who is from Jordan.
Whereas previously Iraq had been a barrier to Iran’s expansionism, today Iran
easily ships arms to Assad in Syria and to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
A questioner who identified himself as a U.S. veteran of
the war in Iraq asked if America’s military effortand the lives lost – all
were wasted.
“This is a tough question,” responded Hanish. “Sadly I
don’t know if we did good by going there. Many would think that it was a
violation of international law.” On the other hand, he added, there is
“relative democracy” in Iraq. But the cost is that people have been dying every
day from sectarian violence.
Haddad said the sectarian violence has caused many
Christians to leave Iraq. Among those Christians were the Chaldean refugees
whose major areas of resettlement in the United States were Detroit, Michigan,
and here in El Cajon, California.
A fourth panelist, Prof. Todd Myers of Grossmont
College’s economics and political science faculty, said that rather than
toppling Saddam Hussein, the United States should have waited for Saddam to
die, and then offered a program of democratization. The cruel math of the
situation, he said, was that Saddam was killing 4,000 people per year to remain
in power. In contrast, U.S. intervention led to the deaths of some 100,000
people. Even if Saddam had remained in power for 10 years, the death toll would
have been much lower, he said.
The room was filled to capacity and a few people stood in
the back of the room to monitor the discussion When moderator Alana Shuckett, a
student who has a masters degree in Homeland Security and subsequently enrolled
at Grossmont College to study Arabic, announced that the allotted time had
elapsed, attendees gave the speakers a round of applause.
-DHH-
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