Peace Week Keynote Address

On Thursday, October 22, I was able to attend a presentation by Phyllis Bennis as part of Western Michigan University's annual Peace Week. Ms. Bennis is a fellow of the Transnational Institute, as well as the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. She specializes in U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and the United Nations, and is a highly published author on topics such as Palestine, Iraq, and United Nations Reform. Her works include Understanding the Palestinian-Israel Crisis and Ending the Iraq War: A Primer.

Although Bennis pointed out early in her speech that her primary audience is the youth of our nation, I was struck by the lack of young people in the crowd. Her target audience for this speech seemed to be scholars and community members of the 50+ generation. I felt that this could be attributed to the lack of publicity concerning not only this event, but Peace Week in general. While at the address, I was able to sign up to hear about future events, but it seems that the organization sponsoring Peace Week could do a much better job of reaching the general public.

Bennis' address focused mainly on the U.S. war in Afghanistan. She pointed out that President Obama's promise to pull troops out of Iraq was accompanied by a promise to further expand the war in Afghanistan. She also brought up the controversy surrounding a tactic of counter-terrorism versus one of counter-insurgency. She explains that one can not win the hearts and minds of the citizens in Afghan while we are dropping bombs on them. To illustrate her point, Bennis told of the former administration's use of cluster bombs, which when dropped explode into many little mini-bombs, each with the strength to kill a child. However, not all of these cute little mini-bombs explode once landing, thus, turning into landmines. These parts were all wrapped in yellow plastic, assumably to be easily seen by civilians. After we had bombed Afghanistan, there were a number of people who fled their homes, with no food, no shelter, in the middle of winter. We then decided to drop MREs to these starving victims, and , in order to make them visible, wrapped them in the same yellow plastic. Embarrassed, the administration sent out warnings, but did not attempt to recall the packages. One can picture the scene when a small, unknowing child runs up to one of these packages to get some food, and is instead blown up.

In addition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bennis also spoke of the Palestinian-Israeli crisis. One point that I found particularly interesting was that of the Goldstone Report. This report was the findings of a mission led by Justice Richard Goldstone to investigate possible war crimes taking place in Gaza late in 2008. His findings were published, which criticized both Palestinian and Israeli actions, though found more guilt with the latter. The Goldstone Report included a list of recommendations, which included asking Israel to pay reparations. Among others, the U.S. found the report to be biased and illegitimate, despite the evidence presented.

In conclusion, I found Ms. Bennis' speech to be informational and thought-provoking. She touched on many topics for possible future research, especially concerning the laws of war and the U.S. domination of the United Nations. My only regret is that there weren't more students in attendance, as I feel the information presented was highly relevant and necessary in order to take an active role in democracy and become an informed citizen.