U.S. officials should attempt to increase communication with the war-torn areas of the Middle East, Faramarzi said.
"As America withdraws, the president should not wash American hands of their responsibility in Iraq," Faramarzi said. "Americans should pay reparations to the people of Iraq for causing the death of almost one million people."
Faramarzi later noted in an interview with The Dartmouth that the number of deaths could range from 200,000 to one million, given that there have been few accurate reports thus far.
Faramarzi proposed that the U.S. government take full responsibility for the millions of Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria, as well as displaced persons in Iraq. The U.S. government should either allow refugees to immigrate to the United States or support them financially wherever they settle, she said.
Faramarzi also stressed the danger of misconceptions surrounding seemingly moderate Middle Eastern governments.
These governments, often supported by the United States due to their religious moderation and political cooperation, are "corrupt, undemocratic and unpopular" in the Middle East, Faramarzi said.
Americans must educate themselves about the implications of Middle Eastern institutions and assume responsibility for the actions of the U.S. government, she said.
"They ought to understand that in order to achieve peace and stability, their government has to be an honest broker," Faramarzi said. "The American people have a duty to understand the people of the Middle East, a region that is tragically at their mercy."
The "faceless victims" of Middle Eastern conflicts are often ignored by Americans, Faramarzi said.
"Even the Americans opposed to the war hardly mention the death of Iraqis," she said. "It's not the ruined country -- it's the taxpayer's money spent."
Faramarzi said that during her time in the Middle East, she was exposed to perceived injustices most people never hear about.
She spoke about an event that occurred in August 2003 when high temperatures caused a northern Baghdad neighborhood to lose power. As a result, American soldiers went into a higher level of alert and established new checkpoints. Within 45 minutes, six Iraqis who were driving home before the curfew drove past the new checkpoint and were shot and killed, Faramarzi said.
"I talked to [the mother] and the daughter, who could not even talk because she was so traumatized," she said in the interview. "And the family were Shiites, so they supported the invasion. Is she ever going to forgive and like the Americans?"
This distrust, developed at an early age, along with poverty, can lead Middle Easterners to resort to radical methods, Faramarzi said.
"It's important to remember that the Taliban has never really been popular," she said. "Poverty and government neglect are driving people into their arms."
Faramarzi's address, the Bernard D. Nossiter '47 Lecture, was sponsored by the Rockefeller Center.
