The Pottery Barn is famous for signs that read, “If you break it, you buy it.” That principle now applies to how the United States handles Iraq, according to the editor of Newsweek International.
Fareed Zakaria told a sold-out audience at the Quick Center the U.S. now should treat Iraq as its “51st state.” Now that America has invaded Iraq and its people, it must also make it a better country as well, he said.
Zakaria commended the United States for taking on the war against terrorism and even stated that this is a historic opportunity for this country to do right and recognize “the powerful connection between Iraq and the Sept. 11 attacks.”
He said that the 9/11 attacks came out of a political and religious extremism from a dysfunctional Middle East. He urged that Iraq can become a pluralistic state and that Arabs have never really been given a chance to be modern.
Zakaria is the editor of Newsweek International, which has a global audience of 3.5 million, and recently joined ABC’s This Week; he spoke at Fairfield on Feb. 18.
At age 28, he became the youngest managing editor in the history of Foreign Affairs, the leading journal of international politics and economics. He is an academic trained at Yale and Harvard universities, and has co-edited several books, most recently The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad, which examines global political trends.
Zakaria said that many countries in the Middle East have never had to generate a strong government and become modern because their natural resources have prevented them from utilizing the policies of entrepreneurialism.
In addition, Zakaria spoke of a failure of secularism in Iraq. He said many people are puzzled by the appeal towards religious leaders rather than secular ones in the Middle East. He also said secular leaders, such as Saddam Hussein, have failed because they never produced democracies, but rather created tyrannies and increased oppression over many groups of people.
Leaders such as Osama bin Laden, who use apparently religious motivations even though they are fanatical, appeal to Arabs because of their strict principles and stance on taking down other superpowers.
Zakaria said, “[the] reason why we see only mosques and religious leaders still standing politically is because the language of religion will always stand.”
He also applauded America’s policy in the fight against terrorism and actually wished it could do more and not less. He said America’s influence in the world has usually been positive, and that for a superpower we have “shown a damn good effort in solving and helping many countries’ problems.”
Many in the audience of both students and residents commended Zakaria and said he gave many perspectives on the realities of terrorism and the future of our world.
“He was incredibly inspiring and although he notes the negative aspects in the U.S. government and our role in Iraq he always had a positive comment as well,” said Michaela Palazzo ’04.
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