Aftandilian Publishes Op-Eds in The Arab Weekly
Gregory Aftandilian, Lecturer at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published two Op-Eds this week — one on the looming reconstruction costs of damaged Iraqi cities and a second the foreign policy of presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Aftandilian’s Op-Eds were published on October 23, 2016 in The Arab Weekly. An excerpt from the text of the first article, entitled “Reconstruction Costs of Damaged Iraqi Cities Another Looming Crisis:”
Much of the discussion about the offensive to recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State (ISIS) has revolved around how ethnic and sectarian cleavages could make the military operation problematic. An equally difficult, and perhaps even more daunting, problem is who will fund the enormous costs of reconstruction in Mosul and other Iraqi cities liberated from ISIS control.
Mosul is likely to be heavily damaged when anti-ISIS Iraqi forces retake the city. A large part — perhaps 80% — of Ramadi was essentially in ruins when the Iraqi government reclaimed it in late 2015.
Ramadi, once a thriving city of about 500,000 people, is mostly uninhabitable. About 50 bridges in the city were destroyed, as were many schools, hospitals and other structures. Some estimates of the cost to rebuild Ramadi reach $10 billion. Other cities in central, western and northern Iraq were heavily damaged when they were retaken from ISIS.
From the text of the second article, entitled “Trump’s Outlandish Foreign Policy Claims Unlikely to Boost His Standing:”
Although the headlines from the last US presidential debate focused on Republican candidate Donald Trump’s unwillingness to say he would unconditionally accept the outcome of the November 8th vote, he also made outrageous foreign policy comments that cater to his political base but are not likely to improve his chances of winning the White House.
If Trump was hoping to appeal to undecided voters concerned about the direction of American foreign policy, he failed.
When Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton attacked him for his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, pointing out that the US intelligence community has concluded that the Kremlin was involved in hacking e-mails to influence the presidential election, Trump replied that Clinton has “no idea” about Russia’s role and added that Putin “outsmarted her” on Syria.
Aftandilian spent over 21 years in government service, most recently on Capitol Hill where he was foreign policy adviser to Congressman Chris Van Hollen (2007-2008), professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and foreign policy adviser to Senator Paul Sarbanes (2000-2004), and foreign policy fellow to the late Senator Edward Kennedy (1999). Learn more about him here.