Best selling author David Halberstam delivered the Baird Pulitzer Prize Lecture at Elon University Thursday, Jan. 16, telling the audience that U.S. military action in Iraq could have no foreseeable ending and consequences for an entire generation. Details...
Halberstam said he is concerned about the “kind of ‘war as a first option’ approach” the Bush administration appears to have adopted with Iraq. He likened a war with Iraq to “smashing your hand into the largest hornet’s nest in the world, and we could pay for it for decades….I am deeply bothered by the potential consequences of war, especially if it is unilateral. This is new, difficult and uncharted territory for all of us” and is a situation “without a preferred outcome.”
Halberstam, who earned a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Vietnam War as a New York Times reporter, said President Bush’s focus on Iraq deflects attention from the more important war on terrorism and weakens the support of our allies in that effort. “I believe the preeminent struggle today is with the terrorists and al-Qaeda.”
“The last thing we want is American kids, black and white, mostly Christian, doing occupation duty in an Islamic country.”
While Halberstam said he doesn’t underestimate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, he believes Bush has not taken the time to consider the consequences of going to war against Iraq. He said the U.S. will not be able to control those consequences, a scenario very similar to Vietnam. “Events are in the saddle and ride mankind,” Halberstam said, quoting Emerson. “The unexpected almost always happens.”
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Halberstam said the U.S. has been isolationist and ignored its responsibilities around the globe. “If we don’t see the rest of the world, it will see us. If we don’t find the rest of the world, it will find us.”
Despite the struggles the U.S. faces because of a sluggish economy and the aftereffects of 9/11, Halberstam said he is optimistic the U.S. can emerge from these trials because it is a strong nation. “I think it’s easy to underestimate the strength and resiliency of America.”
Halberstam’s lecture to a packed house in McCrary Theatre concluded his visit to campus. Earlier in the day, he held a news conference and took questions from students during a question-and-answer session in Whitley Auditorium.
Halberstam’s last 13 books have made The New York Times bestseller list, including “The Best and the Brightest,” “The Powers That Be,” and “The Reckoning.” He has also written extensively on sports, with several sports books and a bi-weekly ESPN.com column to his credit. His latest bestseller, “Firehouse,” tells the story of Ladder Company 36 in Manhattan, which lost 12 of its 13 firefighters in the attacks on the World Trade Center.
The Baird Pulitzer Prize Lecture Series, which brings some of the nation’s most accomplished writers and journalists to campus, is endowed by James Baird and his wife, Jane, of Burlington, N.C. The Pulitzer is the nation’s most prestigious award in journalism and the liberal arts.