From Kirkuk to Foster Avenue

Linguistics professor Dr. Edward Odisho's office on the third floor of the Classroom Building is typical: small, cramped and overflowing with books and papers. Among these are a greeting card from the Iraqi Ambassador to the United States and a picture of his son, U.S. Army Capt. Fred Odisho, veteran of the Iraq war and currently a graduate student in the Political Science Department.

Father and son, both born in Iraq, have views on the New Way Forward plan for Iraq that differ from those announced by President Bush earlier this month.

They both believe that conventional military force model is not the answer and that the 20,000-troop surge is a mistake. Both have seen death and pain in Iraq and fear a larger regional war if Iraq is not handled correctly.

"I've lost a lot of classmates from West Point. I've lost a lot of friends," said Capt. Odisho. "We are stretched thin. We are deploying the entire army for an indefinite period. From the terrorists' perspective, they want to keep them [the coalition military] there [Iraq] so they can't do other things... I'm not confident that an increase of 20,000 [troops] will have any impact at this point."

Capt. Odisho's plan for Iraq calls for a rethinking of the military's mission to one that he admits is counterintuitive for the military.

"Success in Iraq depends on supporting its government politically, economically and militarily, and the increasing or decreasing of U.S. troop levels will do nothing to help in the long-term. Having said this, why has the status quo produced so few positive results? Because the missing element to success in Iraq rests not with what we have been doing, but with how we, especially the United States military, have been doing it."

Capt. Odisho said that the military must stop engaging the insurgents in a high intensity conflict model. Rather they must engage the ordinary people and provide jobs to the Iraqis. By doing that, Capt. Odisho believes that the insurgency will no longer be a source of employment and it will lose support.

"The insurgency will fade away and Iraq will blossom into a sovereign, unified, and functioning nation only if the Iraqi government and its Security Forces manage to win the popular support of the people," said Capt. Odisho.

Dr. Odisho was a proponent of the invasion of Iraq in 2003 but now feels that there needs to be a political rather than military solution. Dr. Odisho feels it must be a holistic approach of bipartisanship among the factions in Iraq and between Republicans and Democrats in the United States.

Dr. Odisho praised the work of Iraq Study Group and U.S. Senators Joe Biden and Chuck Hagle on Iraq.

Dr. Odisho knew the ruthlessness of the Ba'ath party, which Saddam Hussein would later run, firsthand. Twice Dr. Odisho was imprisoned in Iraq because he did not agree with Ba'ath party politics, once for three months and once for 24 hours.

"It was in 1963 that I was jailed for three months with horrible conditions. Then the second time still in '63, I was released one place but then rounded in a second time by the army. And this second time, although it was very, very short, only 24 hours to get out. But there were 87 people who were buried alive during that roundup, and we discovered that six months after we were released. One of them was my friend, a teacher of physics. I was a high school teacher at that time.

"There were three in one grave. We were trying to get our friend out. I cannot forget this scene. His head came off in my hand. It was scary. That day is one of the worst days in my life" Odisho said, reflecting on Iraq's history.

Dr. Odisho laid out his way forward in Iraq, which involves a three-pronged strategy 5 local, regional and international 5 to solve the problems in Iraq.

"One, local implies placing pressure, in fact twisting the arms, of the so-called big three majorities [Shiite, Sunni & Kurds] to behave as Iraqis rather than as ethnic and religious entities, and to behave in the spirit of Iraqiness rather than ethnic, sectarian and regional interests.

"It is the egoistic 'spirit' of the 'majorities' that is the main obstacle in the way of Iraqi national unity. It is only in the spirit of Iraqiness [patriotism] they can come up with solid, tangible and meaningful compromises, which are thus far totally missing because of self-serving tactics by the 'three majorities.' Maintaining stability in Iraq requires 20,000 jobs rather than 20,000 soldiers."

Dr. Odisho said the regional approach involves finding the means to eliminate, or at least neutralize, the meddling in the internal affairs of Iraq by Iran and Syria. Both of them are fighting a proxy war with U.S. in Iraq.

He continued to say that if the coalition armies stay in Iraq, the best location for them is on the borders of Iran and Syria to prevent or minimize the Al-Qaida and other radical Muslims from infiltrating across the borders. Second, a solution is necessary to the problem of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which would reduce the anti-West rhetoric that many Muslim and Arab radicals are manipulating.

With the international approach, Odisho said there should be serious political involvement on the part of other international organizations and politicians such as United Nations, NATO,the European Union, the Arab League and other friendly Islamic nations, such as Turkey and Pakistan.

Both father and son were born in Iraq and have both been recognized as experts on the country. Dr. Odisho taught high school and college in the North of Iraq in Kirkuk, in Baghdad and in the south in Basra.

Dr. Odisho is a professor of linguistics at NEIU. He taught high school and college in Iraq. He has appeared on CNN, ABC World News as a Middle East expert, and the Associated Press has syndicated stories on him from Florida to India.

Dr. Odisho has also written for the press outlets in the Middle East, worked for the U.S. State Department for a brief time on the Free Iraq project, and is a nominee for the NEIU Bernard Brummel Scholar Award.

Capt. Odisho is writing a story to run in the Army Times. He served in Mosul, Iraq with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment from January 2005 to January 2006 where he was the deputy division information operations officer for multinational force-northwest, reporting to Major Gen. David Rodriguez.