Back from Iraq visit, Kaufman speaks to students

Students overflowed a Memorial Hall classroom on Wednesday to listen to the Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) speak about his recent trip to the Middle East and America's foreign affairs policy within the region. 

Political science professor Muqtedar Khan invited the senator to speak to his Islam in Global Affairs class and opened the event up for other students and community members to attend. Kaufman sits on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and recently visited Dubai, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Khan said.


He spoke to students about the differences between the Obama administration's foreign policy and the Bush administration's policy.

The Obama administration uses the help of multilateral organizations when dealing with the Middle East, Kaufman said. The UN helped supervise the elections in Iraq and NATO has troops in Afghanistan. 

While in the Middle East, Kaufman visited Iraq and spoke with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.  Kaufman said things are looking good in Iraq.


"Our troops have pulled out of the city [Baghdad] and are not engaged with the enemy," he said. "By Sept. 1, we should be down to 50,000 troops and be out of Iraq by the end of next year."


Even though the situation in Iraq is improving, it is not solved, Kaufman said. If the government fails, things will go wrong. There are not many Al-Qaeda cells in Iraq, but the ones that are there are trying to drive a wedge between the Sunni and the Shia. 

The situation in Iran may also influence what is going on in Iraq, Kaufman said. 

Some of the audience members were from the places in the Middle East where Kaufman spoke about.

 Senior Kayla Lahijani, an Iranian, disagreed with what the senator said about the Iranian people. 

"He was saying people in Iran are more Westernized than other Middle Eastern countries, which is true but not really," Lahijani said. "They want to wear our clothes, but that does not mean they like us. They do not." 

She also disagreed with Kaufman's view of the relationship between Iran's president and the citizens of the country.


"He was saying that the Iranian president is not supported by his people," Lahijani said. "But really he is or else he would not have rose to that position."