Noted author, historian, and journalist Gwynne Dyer shared his thoughts regarding the pending war in Iraq with Fort High students packed into the Townshend Theatre on Thursday afternoon.
Dyer made a 90-minute stop here during a busy tour that took him from International Falls to Rainy River to Fort Frances and then on to Thunder Bay within 24 hours.
If the pace was getting to him, it didn’t show as Dyer kept his teen audience rivetted with his explanation of the state of the world today and how it got to where it is.
He addressed not only the current situation, but also gave a brief history of the past 75 years in the Middle East, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, and the role oppression plays in shaping the Arab mindset, then neatly tied it all together with the events of Sept. 11.
He also gave a background on Canada’s history in the wars of the last century and how we may be affected by this looming one.
“I have no doubt we [Canada] will be there,” he remarked. “I know the government hasn’t said so, but we already have military officers over there being briefed by the Americans.”
Dyer also noted Canada only has lost four soldiers in the four wars the country has participated in since the Korean conflict in the early 1950s. In the two great wars of the last century, Canada’s fatalities totalled 100,000.
Still, he painted a grim picture of the war to come and how it will be different from the last one in the Persian Gulf in 1991—both in the way it will be conducted and in the cost to both sides.
Dyer said people should be prepared for an entirely different kind of war from the last incursion into Iraq. “What makes it different is we’re really doing the second half of the war we fought in ’91” he remarked.
He also warned there will be considerably higher casualties on both sides because unlike “Desert Storm,” which was fought entirely in the desert and mostly at long range, this one will culminate in the streets of Baghdad—a city of six million people.
“Nobody has fought a street battle in a city of that size since 1945,” he noted.
Dyer also predicted Iraq will strike out at Israel as soon as hostilities begin in the hopes of dragging that country into the conflict in order to “change the optics” and swing Arab opinion against the United States and its allies.
But in the end, he left the students with a positive message, saying he didn’t believe the conflict would spread beyond the region because despite the seriousness of the current situation, we live in a safer world now than we did even 20 years ago.
“It will be a bumpy ride for a year or so, but it will probably be all right,” Dyer concluded.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
