“Dean Hill delivers Iraqi status update lecture” |
| Dean Hill delivers Iraqi status update lecture Posted: 24 Jan 2011 09:52 PM PST Iraq is transitioning from "America's problem to everyone's hope," said Christopher Hill, dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, in his presentation to about 50 students and faculty Thursday evening at Ben Cherrington Hall. Hill served as U.S. ambassador to Iraq from April 2009 to August 2010. Hill said that the war in Iraq "has caused problems in how the United States deals with foreign policy." America has "created more problems than it solved," by introducing democracy to Iraq, he said. The Sunnis are angry because their endowed political authority was taken away by the Shiites, who compose the majority of the Iraqi population. Even the Shiites are involved in many of the acts of hostility against the American military. They blame the United States for creating a sectarian divide among the different religious branches. Iraq is now the only Arab country run by Shiites. However, Hill believes that the positives outweigh the negatives and the invasion of Iraq was worth it. Iraq recently gave contracts to eleven major oil companies, only one of which was American. Hill said that this will increase their oil sales from 2.5 million barrels per day to nine or 10 barrels per day. This increase has caused Iraq to rival Saudi Arabia in oil sales. In the midst of these recent economic improvements, the United Sates is "working hard to prepare Iraq for this inflow of funds" and helping them to increase their capacity for revenue, according to Hill. However, Iraq is uncooperative; they have their own methods. "At some point we just need to be respectful that Iraq has its own way of doing things," said Hill. "Countries' futures will be determined by their own people." Part of Hill's mission, and that of the Korbel School of International Studies, is to further knowledge about the Middle East. He wants Americans to know that Iraq "does have political processes; they are just not ours." He said that although Iraq is a "work in progress," it is "going to make it." Despite Hill's satisfaction with what has happened in Iraq, he is hesitant to say that American intervention in foreign countries is always necessarily a good thing. In response to several questions on what he would advise for other countries based on his experience at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, Hill repeated, "Just be very careful." Hill has served as ambassador to Macedonia, Poland, North Korea and Iraq. He was appointed dean of the Korbel School of International Studies in July 2010. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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