What Iraq is Teaching College Students

College students know that the deepest lessons are lived, not taught, says Eckerd College President Donald Eastman. He fears the lessons of Iraq - the acceptance of torture, of the outsourcing of war, and of the relegation of war duties to the lower economic stratum - have taught them that many of the high ideals they had for the United States of America before 9/11 no longer apply to the country they now live in.

Embedded Memories of War

Soldiers home from the Iraq war are memorializing their slain buddies with tattoos, sometimes covering an entire torso. The images serve to honor and remember the dead, but also mark the bearers’ trauma and loss. Occidental College Assistant Professor of Art Mary Beth Heffernan took her camera to the tattoo parlors near the largest Marine base in the United States to document this trend. The result is a riveting photographic exhibition entitled "The Soldier's Skin: An Endless Edition."

Rethinking the Blackwater Approach to Security

Private military contractors, which are widely used around the world, often contribute to the very insecurity they've been hired to end, says Katie Carmola, a professor of political science at Middlebury College. But Carmola, who has written a book about the wartime use of private security contractors, says it's time to look beyond improved State Department oversight of such firms. Instead, she wants to find ways to use market forces to regulate a market-driven field - like rewarding bonuses for creating lasting security.

News Sources: Blackwater Controversy in Iraq

Iraqi authorities want the U.S. government to sever all contracts in Iraq with the Blackwater USA within six months and pay $8 million in compensation to each of the families of 17 people killed when the private security firm's guards sprayed a traffic circle with heavy machine gun fire last month. They also called on U.S. authorities to hand over the Blackwater security agents involved in the Sept. 16 shootings to face possible trial in Iraqi courts. The tone of the Iraqi demands appear to signal further strains between the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the White House, and raised questions over the use of private security contractors to guard U.S. diplomats and other officials. Reporters looking for experts to comment on this situation can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges, including the following (click on names for contact information):

Robin Wagner-Pacifici - Professor of Sociology/Anthropology, Swarthmore College - Wagner-Pacifici is an authority on society's response to terrorism. She is the author of The Art of Surrender, about the history of military surrender and conflict resolution, and Theorizing the Standoff, about destructive confrontations such as those at Waco and Ruby Ridge.

Fred Thompson - Goudy Professor of Public Management and Policy, Willamette University - Thompson is the author of Reinventing the Pentagon, which looks at defense reform efforts. He is a consultant to the Air Force Materiel Command and the Office of Performance Improvements and Management Reengineering. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the American Society of Military Controllers as editor of the Handbook of Public Finance in 1998.

Bob Snyder - Professor of Political Science, Southwestern University - Professor Snyder can discuss Middle East politics, U.S. foreign policy and Islamist terrorism. He is the author of Hating America: Bin Laden as a Civilized Revolutionary and The Myth of Preemption: More than a War Against Iraq.

Bennington College Faculty Member Guiding Peace Talks

Earlier this month, Iraq peace talks were held for four days at an undisclosed location in Finland. News accounts say representatives from Sunni and Shiite groups in Iraq reportedly are making “huge strides” towards agreeing on a roadmap to peace. Bennington College faculty member Mac Maharaj and former visiting lecturer Roelf Meyer have helped guide the talks, reportedly involving more than 30 high-level delegates from the feuding groups, and study lessons learned from successful peacemaking efforts in South Africa and Northern Ireland.

News Sources: Petraeus Reports on the Surge

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, are set to deliver their much-anticipated assessment of progress in Iraq since the beginning of the U.S. troop "surge" there, which President Bush ordered last winter. The two men will deliver their report to Congress in testimony beginning Sept. 10. And while much has already been reported about what they are expected to say, no one knows for sure. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find the online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges, including the following (click on names for contact information):

Guilain P. Denoeux - Associate Professor of Government, Colby College - Studies democratization in the Arab world, Arab-Israeli conflict, Middle East and North African governments. Author of "Urban Unrest in the Middle East" and chapters about Iraq and Lebanon. Worked in Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Israel. Was charge de mission of the French Cultural Service in Baghdad.

Alex Roberto Hybel - Professor of Government, Connecticut College - Hybel was the author of Power Over Rationality: The Bush Administration and the Gulf Crisis in which he criticized decision-making processes of former President George H.W. Bush's administration. In 2003, he presented series of lectures on U.S. policy toward Iraq in which he said the U.S. should move forcefully, even if unilaterally.

Bob Snyder - Professor of Political Science, Southwestern University - Professor Snyder is the author of Hating America: Bin Laden as a Civilized Revolutionary and The Myth of Preemption: More than a War Against Iraq. He can discuss Middle East politics, U.S. foreign policy and Islamist terrorism.

Iraq Not a PR Exercise

The upcoming report from Gen. David Petraeus on the resuts of the Iraq surge has been preceded by a White House PR campaign that includes speeches to veterans groups and congressional "fact-finding tours" to heavily guarded Iraqi marketplaces. DePauw's Ken Bode says the truth should be judged by evidence, not by staged performances, and the hard facts say the military side of the surge is not working.

Truth - A Wartime Casualty?

In today's military, you don't get truth from the top, says DePauw communications professor Ken Bode. A retired general retorts that military brass may not all be pillars of virtue, but the public still trusts the military more than the media.

News Sources: Bush's Vietnam Analogy

President George W. Bush has drawn heavy flak from the Democrats with his warning that a hasty withdrawal from Iraq would trigger a bloodbath similar to that in southeast Asia after the U.S. retreat from Vietnam. Bush, in an effort to turn on its head the analogy by critics who liken the Iraq war to the Vietnam quagmire, said there was now a legitimate debate in the U.S. about how the superpower was drawn into the Vietnam war, and its damaging exit. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges, including (click on names for contact information):

Douglas W. Simon - Professor of Political Science, Drew University - A U.S. Air Force intelligence officer in Vietnam, he specializes in the history and popular conceptions of the Vietnam War. Simon is an experts on American foreign policy, national security, intelligence operations, the United Nations, international terrorism, and political violence. He has developed an innovative real-time simulation of the U.S. National Security Council.

Clarence R. Wyatt - Assistant Professor of History, Centre College -Wyatt has conducted research on the social and political aftermath of the war in Vietnam, compared to and contrasted with other modern wars involving the United States. He is the author of Paper Soldiers, which evaluated press coverage of the Vietnam war, and is the leader of a travel-study program in Vietnam.

Tobey C. Herzog - Professor of English, Wabash College - A Vietnam veteran and author of Vietnam War Stories: Innocence Lost, Herzog has spoken around the country on the Vietnam War experience, its effects on American society and culture, and its comparison to other U.S. wars. Herzog recently published a literary biography of acclaimed Vietnam War author, Tim O'Brien.

Addressing the Trauma of Combat

Combat trauma is one of the most horrific traumatic events that a person can suffer, says Kathryn Basham, professor with the Smith College School for Social Work. In Iraq, she says, the trauma is compounded by multiple tours of duty with extended deployments. Basham has served on a congressionally mandated committee that in September will issue a report exploring the physiologic, psychologic and psychosocial effects of deployment-related stress during the Gulf War and in Iraq and Afghanistan.