By Jill Hanning
Enquirer contributor

OXFORD - War with Iraq is a hot topic on the Miami University campus, especially in the political science course taught by an Iraqi-born professor.

Miami professor Adeed Dawisha

Adeed Dawisha's class, "The Politics of Arab Nationalism in Islam," fills up quickly. His teachings and writings - his latest book, Arab Nationalism in the 20th Century, will be available in February - are augmented by his vivid observations about his homeland.

"I don't feel very informed by the media, but I do by my political science courses," said John Litchfield, one of Dawisha's upper-level students.

Both in and out of the classroom, Dawisha is not shy about sharing his opinion that the United States should go to war with Iraq to end Saddam Hussein's regime. It's a view, he admits, that is not always popular in an academic crowd.

"In academia, the prevalent attitude is to be anti-war, anti-invasion. I am not," Dawisha said. "Getting rid of Saddam Hussein is a subject of much higher moral order than avoiding a war. It is a mystery to me how people in academia, who consider themselves liberal, don't see that in terms of justice and moral responsibility of a civilized world, we need to rescue the Iraqi people from this nightmare."

He agrees with U.S. efforts to build international support, but said it appears clear that the U.S. military is "going in with or without their support, and given America's certain victory, and the Iraqis' certain support, today's nay-sayers will look pretty dumb tomorrow."

Born and raised in Baghdad, Dawisha, 58, left Iraq when he was 15. He earned a doctorate from the London School of Economics and taught in England, where he met his wife, Karen, an American political science professor who specializes in Russian studies. The couple moved in 1983 to Washington, D.C., where Dawisha taught at George Mason University in Virginia for 15 years.

Three years ago, Miami University expanded its Russian studies program and Karen Dawisha was recruited. Both professors have been at Miami since 2000. The couple has a son and a daughter, both students at Miami.

Some students see the sheltered surroundings of Miami's picturesque campus as another reason to dedicate themselves to learning about outside cultures and events.

"Being sheltered is not a bad thing," said Sara Wallace, one of Dawisha's students. "The initiative of the students, those with intellectual endeavor, will create their own world."

"It's important at a campus like Miami to expose students to cultural forces in the world," Dawisha said. "The classroom becomes an interesting laboratory to test out concepts and ideas in an abstract form."

Student opinion about the looming war is mixed.

"It depends who you talk to, and how informed they are," said student Laura Turner.

Dawisha said the concern is about the loss of innocent lives, but he thinks the Iraqi people will not stand behind Saddam.

"Saddam Hussein and his clique do not have one iota of support among the people or army. No one will go out on the street and fight American soldiers," he said.

Dawisha's family no longer lives in Iraq, which he said enables him to speak frankly.

He said he has been to Washington several times to participate in roundtables at the Pentagon and discussions with the CIA concerning what role the United States should take in a post-Saddam Iraq. He said such talks seem to be evidence of the commitment the United States has to Iraq.

"We have to stay to pacify the country, get it over the Saddam trauma, create conditions - peace, security - that will allow for the emergence of a democratic system," Dawisha said.

Setting up such a system would not be as difficult as many would imagine, he said. Dawisha thinks Iraq's first election could be a year after the current regime is ousted, and compared post-war restructuring to what the allies did in Japan after World War II.

"Iraq has had a democratic history," Dawisha said. "For a Third World country, in the '40s and '50s, parliaments were functioning, political parties were functioning, there was a free press. Iraq has a lot of very capable people - a thriving, highly educated middle class - this is not Afghanistan."

Dawisha has not been back to Iraq since the '70s, though he travels to the Middle East regularly to conduct research.

"It always distresses me that it's so near and yet so far," he said.

If there is a regime change, he would like to take his children to see the place where their father grew up, a place for which he still possesses obvious pride.

"People think of Iraq as being a desolate desert ruled by a mad dictator," he said. "It has a lush, rich history. Babylon was about 35 miles south of Baghdad. I don't want people to think of Iraq as an appendage to Saddam's terror."