Retired admiral reflects on Iraq

Retired Admiral William Crowe Jr. spoke Thursday about the U.S. intervention in Iraq and highlighted, in his view, the main problems needing attention. With the escalating violence unfolding in Iraq, Crowe also emphasized the need to keep peace.\n"You don't win the war if you lose the peace," said Crowe. "This is the number one lesson of bureaucracy."\nAlong with peace tactics, Crowe also talked about the problem with the decreasing ally support for the U.S. He mentioned states like Pakistan being an important part of the process in diplomacy and how such allies need to be approached with care because of their own internal conflicts.\n"(He's) able to draw on his different diplomatic experience and his military experience to really give a well-rounded perspective on what the Bush administration is doing right now," said Elizabeth Wheat, a graduate student in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. \nCrowe, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Ronald Reagan, paid special attention to the "over-optimistic" view of the current administration after the Sept. 11 attacks. \n"(The Iraqi intervention) may have a deeper impact on the country than Sept. 11," said Crowe. "Everything we do in Iraq should be weighed against affects on home."\nCrowe said there wasn't an easy answer to the situation in Iraq and Americans would need to figure out how to deal with it. He said U.S forces have been over-stressed in particular regions of the world and have cut down on human intelligence especially since the end of the Cold War. \n"Many Europeans view 9-11 as a (U.S.) wake-up call to reality after being naïve and sheltered," said Crowe. He later recalled a Time magazine article that claimed the U.S. had become desperate for the U.N. for aid in Iraq.\n"We need friends but have done little to woo them," said Crowe.\nSophomore Jeremy Schnarr, who was in the Marine Corps for four years, was especially interested in hearing what someone with such experience had to say about the situation in Iraq, comparing it to what the media portrays.\n"I found it interesting to finally hear the viewpoint from someone that was in (the) White House before and at other peak times," said Schnarr. "The news (media) is just so one sided … he's kind of going around at it a different way to say that we should be more realistic about this."\nBefore his closing points, Crowe offered his last diplomatic insights.\n"We sometimes are proud of the wars we win by force rather than the ones we avoid by diplomacy," said Crowe. "Some problems can't be solved, particularly by force."\n-- Contact staff writer Aishah Hasnie at ahasnie@indiana.edu.