Ambassador L. Paul Bremer spoke to students and members of the UCF community in the Pegasus Ballroom on Tuesday for the Iraq and Afghanistan Forum sponsored by the Global Perspectives Office.
Bremer's visit was part of Global Perspectives' university-wide 2010-2011 theme of "Global Peace and Security."
"I've actually come to other events like these outside of classroom requirements for my own enjoyment. I want to become a social justice lawyer, and I feel like coming to events like these help me learn what social injustices are taking place around the world and what's being done about them," said Kaley Jowers, an English literature major.
The presentation attracted a variety of students. Some students were interested in the topic while others attended for classroom requirements.
"I mostly came for my Theory and Practice of Literature study class, but I'm interested to see what Ambassador Bremer has to say," said Shelby Birnbaum, a sophomore political science and pre-law major.
Bremer was an executive to six secretaries of state and served overseas in the embassies of Afghanistan and Malawi and deputy ambassador in the American embassy in Norway. President Ronald Reagan named him Ambassador to the Netherlands in 1983, and Bremer was also Ambassador-at-Large for Counterterrorism in Reagan's second term. In 1999 he was appointed as Chairman of the bi-partisan National Commission on Terrorism, and in 2002 President George W. Bush appointed him to the Presidential Homeland Security Council.
Bremer began his speech by explaining the amount of difficulty that occurs when switching from an autocratic government to a democratic one and how moving too quickly could lead to danger.
Bremer told his audience about the overthrow of Suddam Hussein and what life was like before Hussein lost his role as an autocratic leader in Iraq.
"It is important to remember that Suddam modeled his political system and said he did, on Hitler's … because he had liked the way Hitler had used the Nazi party to control the German people," Bremer said.
Bremer's continued speaking about the political, economic and social situation he witnessed in Iraq and the following remedies applied by the United States.
"Within two months of arriving we had established an interim Iraqi government. That Iraqi government in turn appointed ministers that ran the Iraqi ministries for the entire time that I was there and have been running ever since. They have been responsible for the policies, the procedures and the budgets of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of Health, and all 25 ministries," Bremer said.
He finished his speech by relating what he had seen in Iraq to what is currently happening in northern Africa and other areas of the Middle East. Finally, audience members were welcome to ask questions for the question and answer portion of the speech.
"I thought the presentation was very good. It was quite obvious he was a very prominent figure in the Bush administration and his insight into issues in the Middle East were significant because of his experience there. It was very interesting to listen to his perspective," said Daniel Leonard, an industrial engineering major.
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