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San Francisco Chronicle: War will not be made easy
“The Iraq war that began in 2003 demolished the notion that advanced technology in the hands of highly skilled professional soldiers could eliminate the uncertainties, risks, and unexpected consequences that have characterized war throughout history,” says Andrew Bacevich, a CAS international relations professor and director of the Center for International Relations, in the October 29 San Francisco Chronicle. “In fact, although the invading forces initially achieved stunning operational success, the promised strategic and political benefits proved elusive. Victory left many loose ends. . . . The war intended to be brief and decisive became costly, protracted, and agonizingly frustrating. The Iraq war provided a sharp reminder of an enduring truth. Even in a high-tech age, war retains only limited utility. The hazards entailed in opting for the sword remain considerable. Thus did Operation Iraqi Freedom restore the old injunction of statecraft: to use force sparingly and only as a last resort.”
New York Times: Nader no spoiler
Ralph Nader’s sliver of the popular vote in this year’s presidential election shriveled to a third of one percent, about a sixth of what he captured in 2000. So too did the patience shown him by many Democrats, who this year viciously criticized Nader for risking taking valuable votes from John Kerry. But Howard Zinn says history will remember Nader kindly. “Nader has been a heroic figure,” says the CAS political science professor emeritus in the November 6 New York Times. “Presidents come and go, but Nader for decades has been a tireless advocate for the environment, for social justice and citizens’ rights. The problem comes when he moves from that lofty place to the mean streets of politics. Some of the tarnish rubs off on him, whether he likes it or not.”
Boston Globe: Harvard gambling research controversial
Harvard Medical School’s Institute for Research on Pathological Gambling and Related Disorders receives almost all its funding from the gambling industry, which, not surprisingly, uses the researchers’ findings selectively to promote gambling to lawmakers around the country, reports the November 6 Boston Globe. Critics say the arrangement is problematic because the gambling industry so effectively uses the data to promote itself. Yet, the institute’s work has found links between gambling and other addictions that may lead to treatments. “Those are legitimate areas of research,” says Edward J. Federman, a MED psychiatry instructor at the Edith Nourse Rogers Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Bedford, Mass. Federman has received grant support from the Harvard institute to study gambling habits in elderly people with mental impairments. “But you could see why people would say that this kind of research gives ammunition to the industry,” he says.
12
November 2004
Boston University
Office of University Relations