US News & World Report: David Butow

War In Our Time

Hear a one-hour special presentation of War In Our Time this Saturday, January 18 on 93.9 FM at 4PM and Sunday, January 19 on AM 820 at 6PM

Click on the photos to the right to view a slideshow.

A new kind of warfare?
Monday January 13, 2003 during Morning Edition
Fred Mogul reports from Fort Polk, Louisiana, on training for urban warfare. Even though the Cold War has been over for more than a decade, the Pentagon is still struggling to reshape the US military for a wide variety of potential post-Cold War conflicts. Training for urban warfare is one of many activities undertaken with this new mission in mind. You can hear a short Q&A with David Berteau, Director of National Security Studies at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. David Berteau served at the Pentagon for almost 13 years, under Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. He says a war in Iraq could be an opportunity to reach some consensus on what kind of military the US wants in the future, but he says that opportunity is being squandered.
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The economic cost of going to war
Tuesday January 14, 2003 during Morning Edition
What are the cost estimates for a war in Iraq? Why is war bad for the economy when it used to be good for the economy? How has 9/11 affected the debate over the cost of going to war? How is President Bush's handling of the prewar era different than his father in the run up to the Gulf War? We'll get different views from:
Dean Baker, CO-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research
John Douglas, President of the Aerospace Industries Association.
David Gold, economist, New School University
Tom Donnelly, resident fellow, American Enterprise Institute
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Who will do the fighting?
Wednesday January 15, 2003 during Morning Edition
Fred Mogul reports from Fort Polk, Louisiana on soldiers from Fort Drum, NY training for possible war in Iraq. The piece looks at today's all-volunteer fighting force - soldiers who during peace-time are used to working 9-to-5 and going home to their families at night. Why did they join the military? How do they feel about the possibility of going to war? This piece will be followed by a Q&A with Dr. Cindy Williams, a Principal Research Scientist in the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the editor of Holding the Line: US Defense Alternatives for the Early 21st Century (MIT Press, 2001). In this interview she talks about the disparities between the demographic composition of the military and the US population as a whole, and she poses a number of questions including whether policy-makers in Washington have lost touch with what it means to fight a war, since so few of them have children serving in the military.
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Where are the voices of dissent?
Thursday January 16, 2003 during Morning Edition
Where are the dissenters? Who are they? Why do those who question the administration on its Iraq, anti-terrorism and homeland security policies appear to be on the margins? This weekend, demonstrations are planned in Washington D.C., San Francisco and other cities to protest the possibility of a US invasion of Iraq. But is the anti-war message getting through? We posed that question to two opponents of the Bush administration's policies on Iraq. Eli Pariser is the International Campaigns Director for Move-on.org, an anti-war web site. Texas Congressman Ron Paul is one of only six Republican members of the House who voted against the Iraq War Resolution in October. Paul told WNYC's John Rudolph that there were two reasons for his vote...
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The possibility of nuclear retaliation against Iraq
Friday January 17, 2003 during Morning Edition
In December the White House announced a new national strategy to combat weapons of mass destruction. In a policy statement the Bush administration declared that the United States, “must have the capability” to use, “preemptive measures,” to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction against the US. In the final report in our series War in Our Time WNYC’s John Rudolph explores the history of this new policy, and how it might affect the showdown with Iraq.
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All Photos: David Butow, US News & World Report

Related Links
Ron Paul (R) Texas
Moveon.org
a web site that has organizes war dissenters
BBC's In Depth: Conflict with Iraq
Timelines, maps, photos, sound and video chronicling the UN's and US's antagonism with Iraq
World Military DataBase 2002
From The Center for Defense Information, the 2001-2002 edition of the World Military DataBase is a guide to the US military with information on military forces, personnel, budgets, deployments and security arrangements for the United States and around the world.
This is a PDF
Defense Almanac
This site provides a variety of information and statistical material compiled by the staff of the American Forces Information Service from various official sources within the Department of Defense.
The Gulf War
Frontline's coverage of the Gulf War including maps and oral history.
Confronting Iraq
The latest news on America's readiness, the weapon inspectors and the international community.