Iraq is “like a patient walking around on crutches” according to Larry Diamond, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, who spoke about the War in Iraq during lunch today in the Social Studies Resource Center to Palo Alto High School’s Foreign Policy class and other students.

Diamond is an expert on the War in Iraq and was an advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. He is also the founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy and has written other books about democracy. He has also advised the U.S. Agency for International Development, the World Bank, the United Nations, the State Department, and other governmental and nongovernmental organizations. He is currently a professor of political science and sociology at Stanford University.

Senior Noah Sneider organized the event as part of his Foreign Policy class project, but it was open to all interested parties. Students who attended the event were impressed by Diamond’s knowledge and appreciated his visit.

“It was definitely valuable to have an expert on Iraq come to talk to us in a comprehensive way,” senior Yvonne Lin said.

Diamond began his presentation by giving a brief history of the War in Iraq and then moved on to the present time.

“Iraq in 2006 was analogous to someone who shattered his leg, was bleeding and was in danger of dying,” Diamond said, “The surge started in 2007 and stopped the bleeding. At present, Iraq is like a patient walking around on crutches. But unless he is supported he will go back to being in a life threatening situation.”

According to Diamond, there was a dramatic decline in violence from 2006 to the present day; in November 2006, 3500 civilians died, and in November 2008, 500 civilians died.

Diamond continued speaking about his predictions and suggestions for the future.

“Things have gotten better because of changes in U.S. political and military strategies,”
Diamond said. “But Iraq is a very fragile state and still has very big problems.”

Diamond also said the U.S. needs to use its military leverage and political leverage in order for power sharing. He also emphasized that the U.S. needs to involve the United Nations and Iraq’s regional neighbors to help with Iraq’s fragile state.

The presentation concluded with a question-and-answer session. Student reactions to the presentation were positive and the presentation was widely appreciated.

“He was very impressive. We are lucky to have such brilliant people running U.S. foreign policy,” senior George Kadifa said.