American soldiers must continue fighting terrorists in Iraq to ensure that democracy will develop in the country, former government officials and foreign policy analysts told students Tuesday night at a Harvard University forum.

Former CIA director R. James Woolsey, former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett, Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney and Harvard Jewish literature professor Ruth Wisse addressed the crowd of about 200 people, many of whom belong to the Harvard Republican Club, about America’s ‘long war of the 21st century.’

‘We need to keep another major terrorist attack from happening by creating a fear that even [former President] Franklin D. Roosevelt would be worried about,’ Woolsey said.

Woolsey compared the war on terrorism to the Cold War, which lasted more than 40 years, saying the war could last through the lifetimes of the students in the audience.

‘We should not blink at the fact that it may take a long time,’ Woolsey said. All four members of the panel agreed Sadaam Hussein’s Iraq was a dictatorial regime, saying most of Islam is a totalitarian movement disguised as religion.

Wisse, an advisor to the Harvard Republican Club, compared Hussein’s Iraq to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany, alluding to war crimes against Jews. Wisse said Hitler and Hussein both used the ‘politics of blame’ to claim power over their nations, adding Jews have been targets for all Arab nations, just as they were for Germany during World War II. But, according to Wisse, because Israel is such a small country, Arab nations see the United States as an appropriate target for terrorism.

‘Anti-Semitism is the tool of anti-Democratic leaders,’ Wisse said. ‘It isn’t Israel; it’s the obsession with Israel that has obstructed progress.’

Bennett, who served in former President Ronald Reagan’s cabinet, said although conditions in Iraq have improved, the United States must continue to occupy the country to ensure stability.

‘You have to be in favor of staying in and winning,’ Bennett said. ‘Let’s be more forthright … about why we’re there: it’s civilization against barbarianism. How could anyone stand by and not be offended by the terrorists’ actions?’

Bennett said if the United States was not in Iraq, thousands more innocent Iraqis would be killed each week. Gaffney also said there is no other option than to fight terrorists in Iraq and other enemies, because their ‘safe-havens’ must be denied.

‘We must have the ability, the will, to act, to take the war to these enemies,’ Gaffney said.

According to Woolsey, Hussein’s Iraq is one of three regimes against which the United States is waging war; he also mentioned the Wahabi terrorists in Saudi Arabia and North Korea as opponents to democracy.

Woolsey said in 1945, 20 democratic nations existed. There are 121, which he called a ‘titanic achievement’ that has been accomplished without forcible armed combat. Iraq is an exception, he added, but it must be completed.

‘It’s a war between freedom and tyranny,’ Woolsey said. ‘If you’re not on the side of freedom, we want you to be nervous.’

Gaffney called the war in Iraq ‘a truly great enterprise’ that has been thrust upon the United States due to revenge and a threat from a source of instability.

‘We must prove ourselves as a people to have the tenacity to see this enterprise through,’ Gaffney said.

Though Gaffney said he would like more assistance from American allies, Woolsey joked about the worth of France as an American ally.

‘Look at France’s success,’ Woolsey said. ‘In 200 years, they’ve had two republics, five empires and two dictatorships.’