The U.S. is going the wrong direction and making vital mistakes when examining its attitude toward fighting al-Qaida overseas, said a former Marine.

Matthew Hoh, a former combat Marine in the Middle East and Foreign Service officer in Afghanistan from 2007 to 2009, said he chose to resign from the Foreign Service because he thought the U.S. government was making fatal errors in carrying out the War on Terror at a foreign policy conference Monday on campus. Hoh worked in the Pentagon in 2003.

“I’m not mad about our decision to invade Iraq,” Hoh said. “I’m upset that someone didn’t get fired.”

Hoh addressed the current situation of the War on Terror from the following four points: U.S. forces’ effect on al-Qaida, U.S. forces’ upholding of a new regime lead by Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai, the proposition of an immediate cease-fire in Afghanistan and the U.S. defense strategy’s approach toward cultural tensions that existed in the region before the U.S. arrived in the region after 9/11.

“I’m in no way saying we should not have gone to Afghanistan in 2001, we were rightly justified in doing so,” Hoh said.

He said the U.S. is on track to repeat history with other countries that have previously occupied the same region.

“People aren’t firing at us because they hate freedom, they’re upset because we are occupying their land,” Hoh said. “Let me put it to you this way: If Texans were now Oklahoma State Troopers, you’d be just as angry as these people.”

He said al-Qaida is currently re-establishing itself in other places.

OU President David Boren compared al-Qaida’s current state to the mafia.

“They’re like the mafia use to be,” Boren said. “When things got bad in Chicago, they would move to Miami.”

Boren said al-Qaida should not be treated as if they were a military force.

“We aren’t dealing with the Third Reich here,” Boren said. “I’m worried we are using the term ‘war’ to justify this nation spending resources that we don’t have in the middle of an economic recession in which our resources are already stretched so far.”

Mike Boettcher, visiting journalism professor, who offered his perspective on CNN about the conflicts in the Middle East and reported overseas in the Middle East, said the debate within the U.S. is flawed to give the American public a false idea of the enemy.

“We as the media have done a horrible job of explaining this situation,” Boettcher said. “We as a nation do not have the information to properly inform us about what is going on.”

Hoh said the misinformation hinders real progress made at home when deciding on a strategy for the right approach in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“We need to make decisions based on the right thing, not what is going to look popular in the next election,” Hoh said.

Hoh speculated what the future of the U.S. forces in the Middle East would look like.

“I would think that President (Barack) Obama would want to show some action on international issues because his domestic policies look like they are falling through,” Hoh said.

Hoh said the U.S. would have to keep troops in Iraq to keep stability between the Sunnis, Shias and Kurds, but in the end, Obama will have to take some action on Iran.

“Either way, it is going to be good for the regime,” Hoh said. “They are not going nuclear to blow up Tel Aviv, [Israel]. They are building a bomb because they want to be treated as a respected country in world affairs. But if we occupy them to stop them from going nuclear, then those who are for and against the regime will all unite because they won’t like being occupied by foreign forces.”

Hoh predicted that what is taking place in Afghanistan will take place in Iran.

“We know how to occupy people and take down regimes in three weeks, what we do afterward is where we face the most trouble,” Hoh said.