An American lobbyist for humanitarian concerns and a Northwestern law professor debated Tuesday night the possibilities for change in the Iraqi government after a U.S. military strike.

The lobbyist, Faisal Istrabadi, an Iraqi-born American and Douglass Cassel, director of the Center for International Human Relations at the Law School spoke to a crowd of fewer than 15 people at Scott Hall. The speakers debated sanctions, the Iraqi people’s opinions of the United States and of their own government and the international implications of a preemptive United States strike.

“I witnessed it first-hand,” Istrabadi said. “Enough is enough. 34 years is enough.”

Istrabadi has worked with the United States Future of Iraq Project to encourage military action to instill a democratic government in Iraq. He focused on seven myths of the Iraqi conflict. Among them were the assertions that the people of Iraq were at each other’s throats, that democracy in Iraq cannot work, that the United States should act only with United Nations support and that democracy would work only with United Stated military occupation.

Cassel, who has served as a consultant for the United Nations, said that he respects Istrabadi’s opinions. But he said the United States should not use military force, especially without the approval of the United Nations. Cassel also challenged President Bush’s justifications for war.

“What Bush says is that the U.S. faces a threat from a man who hates us and poses a threat to international peace and security,” Cassel said. “Anybody who believes these cover stories, I believe, is naive.”

Cassel called Hussein “a devil, but a rational devil” and challenged White House allegations that Hussein would attack the United States.

Istrabadi, who believes the United States should go to war with Iraq, said that Hussein’s record in the early 1990’s shows his lack of concern for the well-being of Iraqis, and said that Hussein could strike.

“I see no other hope for the people of Iraq,” he said. “I agree that the case for an imminent threat has not been made, but the day that Saddam explodes a nuclear weapon, that is a day I do not want to wake up.”

Cassel said he is concerned that a preemptive United States strike would set off worldwide tensions in India and Pakistan or Russia and Georgia.

“If the United States says the name of the game is force, how many people are going to die because we let the genie out of the bottle?” Cassel asked.

Both speakers agree economic sanctions have to be lifted, and that it was unlikely the United States would take as humanitarian of an approach as is necessary.

“To our policy-makers, humanitarian concerns mean absolutely nothing,” Istrabadi said.