PENN STATE 12/8

Despite an early morning snow flurry, a packed house greeted me at the Dieke Building for last week's session of Geography 128: The Geography of International Affairs. Taught by Professor Rose-Redwood, the course has been focused heavily on the Iraq conflict, with readings from newspapers, periodicals and topical readers commenting on the Iraq war and its impact on the Middle East neighborhood. Targeting my comments to some of the 'geopolitical' lessons I learned in Iraq, I described how many of the broader conflicts can be seen even in the arena of local politics in Baghdad. For instance, due to the boycott of the elections in January 2005, the Sunni political parties have no local representation in Baghdad's municipal government. This mirrors their lack of power in the national government, and in many ways, is even worse for their constituents - having a voice in City Hall is critical to making people's lives better in a real tangible way. Hopefully I shed a little light on an area that certainly needs more serious study; I got some very good questions from some of the students and stayed after class for a little extra discussion.