MIT professors criticized the United States’ reaction to Sept. 11 last night at a forum about the political repercussions of the terrorist attacks.

Political science professors Stephen Van Evera, Suzanne Berger and Jeremy Pressman emphasized the need for stronger and more decisive American diplomacy around the world.

With the threat of a war with Iraq looming, the possibility of the nation’s unregulated nuclear weapons has become a central consideration in United States foreign policy, one Van Evera said is exaggerated in comparison to other more dangerous issues that receive little attention.

“The Iraqi threat of nuclear war is a trivial problem. The U.S. is spending peanuts to safeguard against the loose nukes in the former Soviet Union, enough chemicals to make up to tens of thousands of atomic bombs,” Van Evera said, calling it the “single worst failure of government in modern times.”

American focus on Iraq is indicative of Bush’s lack of direction in the war on terrorism, according to Van Evera.

“The United States is waging a war on too many fronts and not concentrating enough on the real enemy: Al-Qaida,” he said.

Berger focused the importance of maintaining American alliances in Europe.

“We need the Europeans because their ideals are fundamentally our own,” she said.

Berger, who spent last year in France, described the French reaction to Sept. 11 as sympathetic at first and then very cold as soon as four days afterward.

It is necessary for Americans to listen to European criticisms and keep these nations as close allies, she said.

“We are exempting ourselves from the same principles we’re pushing on the rest of the world,” said Berger, citing the United States’ refusal to participate in international tribunals.

Pressman concentrated on the Middle Eastern reactions, highlighting often-contradictory relations between the United States and Middle Eastern nations.

“We have a fundamental economic link to the Middle East,” he said about oil trading with nations like Saudi Arabia and Iraq. However, he noted 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, a nation the U.S. trades with and economically assists.

All three speakers said they felt no greater sense of safety from terrorist attacks since Sept. 11 because American policy has not adequately addressed the war on terrorism. They agreed the war could not be fought like other wars, and peacekeeping efforts would be the most effective safeguard against more attacks.

The government should attempt new diplomatic and economic initiatives to combat terrorism, Van Evera suggested.

“The war of terror requires tremendous innovation,” he said.