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Pundits to Debate Iraq War
Dueling authorities, both Republican (though of very different stripes) and both passionate authors, will debate "Iraq and the War on Terror: Were We Wrong?" on campus on May 24.
Former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson and William Kristol, The Weekly Standard's founding editor, will engage each other in Campbell Hall at 7:30 p.m. for one of the "great debates" sponsored by the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation. It is free and open to the public. Political scientist Benjamin J. Cohen will moderate the event.
Kristol, former chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle, advocates the neoconservative point of view and is author of the 2003 best-selling book, "War Over Iraq: Saddam's Tyranny and America's Mission." He has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
Wilson, a UCSB alumnus, enjoyed a highly decorated career with the Department of State, one of the high points of which was negotiating the freedom of 150 American hostages with Saddam Hussein before the first Gulf War when Wilson was acting ambassador to Iraq. He currently heads a consulting firm specializing in international business management and is an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C.
The ambassador is also on tour for his new book, "The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity." The book recounts how Wilson, whom the CIA sent to Niger to investigate what turned out to be bogus claims that Iraq was buying uranium to advance its nuclear program, challenged the Bush Administration's assertions as it prepared the public to go to war.
The book details the exposure, allegedly by White House officials, of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, who was a covert CIA operative.
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William Kristol, founding editor of The Weekly Standard, advocates neoconservative views in using American power, particularly in Iraq.
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Former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson, who has been in the middle of the Iraq debate since before Gulf War 2 began, now has published a book on it.
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