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Christian Science Monitor and Washington Post: Iraqi National Museum treasures smashed, stolen
The frenzied looting that began shortly after Baghdad fell under U.S. control has spread to the Iraqi National Museum. Almost 70 percent of the institution’s statues, carvings, and artifacts -- some 9,000 years old -- have been stolen or smashed, reports the April 14 Christian Science Monitor. For 80 years, Iraq’s national museum has been the repository for irreplaceable historic records and collections of ancient art and artifacts from the country’s Babylonian, Assyrian, and Mesopotamian past. “If Iraq has anything besides oil, any meaning for humanity, it is in this history,” says Paul Zimansky, a CAS professor of archaeology. The museum’s artifacts include the bust of an Akkadian king, dated 2300 b.c., a collection of Neolithic items about 9,000 years old, and a Uruk stone face carving, dubbed the “White Lady,” which is about 5,500 years old, according to a story in the Washington Post on April 14. “There are thousands of unique items,” Zimansky says. “If somebody walks off with those things, we’ll never see them again. It is a disaster of major proportions.”
Christian Science Monitor: POWs’ rescue buoys military effectiveness
The rescue of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch last month and the April 13 rescue of seven American POWs in Iraq says much about the attitude of the United States towards its soldiers being taken prisoner, says the April 14 Christian Science Monitor. “There are a lot of reasons why our forces fought as effectively as they did in Iraq,” says Michael Corgan, a CAS associate professor of international relations and a retired Navy commander. “But this idea that we take care of people and go out and look for our POWs is a big factor.” Typically, soldiers such as Lynch and the seven enlisted personnel receive only brief basic training on the military’s code of conduct for POWs, with an annual hour-long refresher course. Most aircrews and special ops units (Navy SEALs, Army Special Forces, and Delta Force) take a course on survival, evasion, resistance, and escape. The course is good preparation for the possibility of being taken prisoner, says Corgan. “But no training can prepare you for the actual event -- someone pointing a cocked, loaded pistol at your head.”
The Hampton Union (New Hampshire): A club for commuters
Commuters who travel the Downeaster, a train that carries
Boston workers from points in Maine and New Hampshire and then back home,
have bonded not just as traveling companions, but also as social acquaintances.
There’s even a Web site for the 65 regulars, 15 of whom commute
from Portland -- www.downeastriders.us -- started by Bill Lord,
a COM professor of journalism. “We do a word-of-mouth passenger
of the month, conductor of the month, engineer of the month,” says
Lord. “It’s just created a tremendous camaraderie. We’ve
never met before this. We’ve ended up having dinner together, getting
together with our wives.” Lord commutes three days a week from his
home in Cape Porpoise, Maine, to BU. “Some of us spend six, seven
hours a day commuting,” he says. He adds that economically and environmentally,
the train is the way to go. There’s not as much room on the bus,
he explains, you can’t get up to get coffee, and all you can see
is the highway. From the train, he says, he’s seen moose, deer,
and turkey
18
April 2003
Boston University
Office of University Relations