Relations impacts and cp’s

Education cp 1nc

And, the Iraqi Fulbright program is one of the biggest in the middle east—its key to reconstructing Iraqi infrastructure

DOS no date given

  

Education programs solve US-Iraq relations

Education program key to solve for Relations

Rubin 09

[Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist, “Worldview: Maliki highlights hope for future of Iraqi education” 7/26/09, Lexis]
But the focus on whether some U.S. trainers and enablers may stay on misses a key aspect of the visit. Ask me the most important accomplishment of Maliki's trip, and I'd pick an event that passed almost unnoticed: the Iraq Education Initiative, announced by Maliki on Saturday. The program will send up to 10,000 students per year over the next five years to the United States and other English-speaking countries, on full Iraqi scholarships. What that initiative signals is that Iraqi-U.S. relationships are shifting, as they must, to another dimension. Now that Iraqi violence is way down, what matters is the kind of country that will emerge out of decades of pain and turmoil - and what long-term relationship develops between our two countries. These are the results that will determine whether Iraqi and American sacrifices have been worthwhile. While Americans are aware of the December accord that governs our troop exit, you may not know we signed a Strategic Framework Agreement simultaneously that was meant to deepen U.S.-Iraqi economic, political, cultural, and educational ties. The Iraq Education Initiative gives the first insight into how the U.S.-Iraqi relationship can broaden under the SFA. "A healthy relationship between Iraq and the United States should not be based on American soldiers working as policemen on Iraqi streets," said Maliki political adviser Sadiq al-Rikabi in an interview. "We're working hard to build a normal state and normalize our relationship with the United States." The SFA, he says, is essential to that goal. Yes, skepticism is justified. Iraq is still going through spasms of violence, has a dysfunctional political system, and experiences continuing sectarian tensions. However, despite efforts by radical remnants to reignite civil war, most Iraqi political groups appear committed to resolving their differences in the political arena. Attention is focused on 2010 elections. And, yes, Maliki, who is playing to nationalist sentiment at home, has often infuriated U.S. military and civilian officials. Example: when he trumpeted the June 30 withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraqi cities as a "victory" for Iraq over American "occupiers." The U.S. envoy to Iraq, Chris Hill, told USAToday last week that Maliki's comments were sometimes "hard to take." Yet, on this visit, the prime minister struck a different tone, in remarks at the U.S. Institute for Peace, that will surely receive wide circulation in Iraq. "We want and seek a strong and solid relationship which is open with the Americans," he said, "and there are no internal politics of Iraq that prohibit us from having such a . . . relationship with a great country like the United States." Which brings me back to the education initiative. I spoke with Zuhair Humadi, the executive director of the Higher Committee for Educational Development in Iraq, which will administer the program. He explained that it will serve two purposes: "Our objective is to reform the Iraqi educational system, and sending young people abroad will enhance their capabilities within Iraq." The program will also give young Iraqis, who have long been isolated, "an opportunity to see what is going on in the world," adds Humadi, a well-known expert on international education. "It exposes them to democratic institutions and values." The initiative will begin in 2009-10 with a pilot program of 500 students chosen by scholastic achievement all over Iraq. Female students will be welcome. (Iraq has a tradition of women's education.) If, as Humadi insists, politics and sect can be kept out of the selection, that alone would represent a milestone in Iraqi progress. A new consortium of American universities will streamline admissions for qualified Iraqis; a new English Language Institute in Baghdad will bolster the language skills of successful candidates. They will be expected to return to Iraq once they finish their studies.

AT: Links to politics

1NC Rubin says it doesn’t require a single cent from the U.S.

And, the State Department does it, which means no political capital is used
___

CP is popular

Washington Post 03

[“Visa Hassles” 12/17/03, lexis]
What is needed, then, is a deeper, national change in attitudes to foreign visitors: The State and Homeland Security departments, Congress and the White House need to make clear their support for the Fulbright programs, academic exchanges and business meetings that have such a huge impact on foreigners' views of America. When new Fulbright programs for Iraq and Afghanistan were announced, for example, there was enormous enthusiasm and many applicants.

****IRAN****

hardline on Iran good

If Iran establishes itself as a regional hegemon, it will push the U.S. out of Gulf state bases- hardline US action is key to stop it

Mazel, 2010 [Zvi, former Israeli Ambassador to Egypt and Swedon, Fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 3/21, Jerusalem Post As summer nears, the Gulf is heating up, lexis]
Relations between Iran and the Gulf states are more strained than ever. Iran is issuing threats and working nonstop to undermine their stability. It repeatedly declares that these countries are part of its historic territory and it will take them over at the appropriate time. In the meantime, Iran is exploiting their territory and services to circumvent the sanctions that were imposed on it over the last two years. Straw companies were established in Dubai, and apparently in Bahrain and Kuwait, to purchase sophisticated products on Iran's behalf that were needed to advance its nuclear program. The banks in these countries also provide a smoke screen for illicit transactions and money laundering by Revolutionary Guard leaders. The Gulf states are aware of what is going on, but they are conducting an appeasement policy toward Teheran - even if they themselves have no confidence in it. All this is occurring while with increasing dread they helplessly follow the nuclear crisis, epitomized by Iranian determination and aggression in the face of American weakness. The tension level in the region has increased in recent days as once again a measure of Iranian subversion in the Gulf states came to light. In Kuwait a spy network acting on behalf of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was uncovered; it intended to establish the infrastructure in anticipation of a takeover of the country: to incite the Shi'ites against the regime, establish sleeper cells to act when the time came and provide support for illicit economic activity. This time parliament members insisted that Kuwait not back down from confronting Iran, and the attorney-general has already submitted an indictment to the courts. Kuwait is considered a stable and moderate country, with close ties to the US. It provides strategic depth and a lifeline for the American army in Iraq. American soldiers on their way to and from Iraq pass through Kuwait, and the US Army's weapons and munitions are funneled via Kuwait. The confrontation between Iran and the United Arab Emirates escalated as UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan compared the continuous occupation by Iran of three islands belonging to his country to "the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian lands." Iran conquered these islands (Abu Musa and Greater and Lesser Tunb) in 1971, the year that the Emirates gained independence from British rule. In recent years Iran has settled the islands and established military camps there. The rulers of the Emirates, on the other hand, continue to reiterate their demand that Iran restore the islands or agree to international arbitration. Iran refuses. The issue is also on the Arab League agenda, and at every senior- level conclave the demand to restore the islands to their legal owners is emphasized. THE IRANIAN response to Kuwait and the UAE was as brutal as ever. Iran totally denied that spies acting on its behalf were operating in Kuwait and warned the regional media "not to take lightly their responsibility to publish credible information and particularly [avoid] baseless information." This affair recalls the exposure of a Hizbullah cell in Egypt whose members were placed on trial and sentenced to long prison terms. In this case, Hizbullah conceded its guilt, but explained that the intention was to assist Hamas in Gaza against Israel. Nevertheless, everyone knows that Hizbullah was operating in the service of Iran to strike at Egyptian stability. In a response to the declaration by the UAE foreign minister, the charge d'affaires of its embassy in Iran was summoned to the Foreign Ministry where he was read a protest, whose main points were that "the Iranian people considered itself aggrieved by the foreign minister's declaration and that the response to these declarations would be severe." An Iranian spokesman even said that the Emirates states belonged to Iran and when the time came, they would come under Iran's control. With these incidents in the background, the official Iranian news agency published a notice warning the Gulf states against pursuing confrontation in the following picturesque language: 'There is no lion in the region save for the one that crouches on the shore opposite the Emirate states. He guards his den which is the Persian Gulf. Those who believe that another lion exists in the vicinity (meaning the US) - well, his claws and fangs have already been broken in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine. No good can be expected of him or his hunting sorties. Today he is counting the days until he finds a way out that will allow him to escape by the skin of his teeth. Iran, the Emirates, and the other countries in the region will remain, by dint of geography, neighbors forever.' This is an interesting and realistic expression of the condition in the region as long as the West does not alter its weak policy. Iranian confrontation with Bahrain made recent headlines when the director of the Bahraini anti-drug trafficking apparatus, Mubarak bin Abdallah al-Marri, said at a regional conclave in Riyadh that Iran operated directly to smuggle drugs into Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and that both countries had thwarted many smuggling attempts by sea in Iranian vessels coming from Iranian territory. A year ago, one of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's advisers announced that Bahrain was the 14th district of Iran, an announcement that triggered severe responses in the Arab world. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak immediately flew to Bahrain to express his support. Intermittent reports are published about Iranian subversion in Bahrain with the assistance of Shi'ite citizens who constitute about 60 percent of the population. It is to be recalled that the Bahraini authorities produced intelligence for the Clinton administration in the mid-1990s that Iran was behind a subversion campaign to overthrow the Bahraini government. In 1995, Teheran acquired a new incentive: The US upgraded its naval presence in Bahrain to become the headquarters of the newly-created US Fifth Fleet. Successful Iranian subversion in Bahrain would also have a major strategic consequence by forcing the withdrawal of the US Navy from its main base in the Persian Gulf, just as Iran seeks to establish itself as the hegemonial power of the entire region. It is

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