Is Keeping Troops in Iraq in America’s Best Interests?

IMGXYZ768IMGZYXOn September 18, Carnegie Endowment President Jessica T. Mathews debated whether “Keeping troops in Iraq is vital for America’s national interests in the Middle East” in an event moderated by Margaret Warner, senior correspondent for PBS’s The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. The event was hosted by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia at the historic Dome Room of the University of Virginia’s Rotunda in Charlottesville, Va.

Mathews and Ambassador Chas. W. Freeman, former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and president of the Middle East Policy Council, argued against the statement, while Frederick W. Kagan, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and an architect of the “surge” plan, and Reuel Marc Gerecht, AEI resident fellow, argued in favor.