Military

DATE=5/14/02

TYPE=English Feature

NUMBER=7-36294

TITLE=Explaining Terror

BYLINE=Susan Kaplan

TELEPHONE=260-1623 (Editor)

DATELINE=Amherst, Massachusetts

EDITOR=Faith Lapidus

CONTENT=

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/// ATTENTION: EDUCATION, YOUTH ///

INTRO: Trying to understand the conflict in the Middle East is challenging. But in the post September 11th world, many Americans seem more willing to try. The University of Massachusetts in Amherst is helping that process along with a new course being offered this semester: 'Explaining Terror. The Middle East and The United States.' Reporter Susan Kaplan joined the class.

TAPE: CUT 1 SFX CLASS AMBIANCE

TAPE: CUT 2 - MEDNICOFF

I think that teaching a course that directly confronts a lot of the issues that people have been wondering about since September 11th is really crucial.

TEXT: University Of Massachusetts Legal Studies Professor David Mednicoff says the current strife in the Middle East makes this an ideal time to try to reach students. He says his course is not intended to focus on current events but to give an introduction to contemporary Middle Eastern politics.

TAPE: CUT 3 - MEDNICOFF

Given a little exposure to material, in a very open way, I find my students to be extremely sophisticated, critical, thoughtful, in the way they're thinking about the Middle East. I'm really trying to make this a course about their coming to grips themselves with difficult material. I'm not imposing a lot of my own perspectives on the material. I think there's a lot of valid responses to Arab and Islamic politics and the United States after September 11th.

TEXT: When Professor Mednicoff asks his students to come up with concrete ideas about what U-S foreign policy should look like in a post September 11th world, hands shoot up and a lively conversation begins.

TAPE: CUT 4 - MONTAGE STUDENTS

What I want to see is a clearer foreign policy. Where you know what we stand for like, are we standing for our morals or are we standing for our interests at the time? And like, our interests change, you know, from decade to decade according to who's in power in what country.

Most people assume that we extend our fundamental values of self-determination and democracy outside of our borders when really that's not the case. So if people were more aware that our strategic interests weren't to instill democracy but were more about putting up dictators cause they were more stable, then people would put pressure on the policy-making elite to change their kind of foreign policy to fit more long-term goals.

All of a sudden it's in our face. I think a lot of my friends just personally were really shocked about foreign policy in general. I mean like I have a very limited knowledge from this class and what I share with them they really had no idea about, and they were interested to learn more, and I couldn't answer their questions because I don't know enough. And I just think for the government to assume that people aren't interested is a really big and dangerous assumption.

TEXT: Their instructor encourages the discussion but urges the students to get more specific. by giving some concrete examples about what's motivating U-S foreign policy today.

TAPE: CUT 5 - MONTAGE STUDENTS

The long-term policy is to create a safe situation where we're not going to be attacked anymore. And you know that might include attacking countries where the people are - we know that they're there we'll go get them. We say why is Saddam Hussein getting all these weapons of mass destruction. It's because he wants to attack the United States. He wants to attack Israel, he wants to attack us and he wants to attack our friends.

I find it strange that we're not just attacking countries directly. We're giving other countries military training and military technology. We're arming them up like we did in the Cold War again and we're going to just create a whole new generation of these military strongmen all over the world.

TEXT: The students keep talking and they are remarkably articulate. But the immensity of the subject and its very discouraging nature weighs heavily on some of them.

TAPE: CUT 6 - STUDENT

And we've built more tanks in this country than we have schools. You know there's something seriously wrong here. And it's not getting any better and there's no hope, so just don't even try. I know that it's defeatist and it's fatalist but I guess all I can say is as much as I would love to change everything and make all the people happy and try and get American foreign policy to be accommodating. it's never going to happen. And so we might as well go after our self-interest. Nothing except for alien invasion is going to change foreign policy.

TAPE: CUT 1 SFX CLASS AMBIANCE

TEXT: As the class ends, the students seem energized and continue their discussion into the hallway. There will be more discussions in September. Professor Mednicoff will be teaching the course again next semester, and interest in the subject is growing on other campuses as well. In the fall, two other Massachusetts schools - Amherst and Mt Holyoke Colleges - will offer new courses on the politics of the Middle East. I'm Susan Kaplan in Amherst, Massachusetts.