Amidst all the buzz generated by the president’s State of the Union address last night you might have missed the underreported story of a new American offensive that, if successful, would be sure to stop Saddam in his tracks, neutralize any weapons of mass destruction he may have, and turn him into a good neighbor. News of this secret weapon appeared this morning in, of all places, the Chronicle of Higher Education (link requires subscription, but this one doesn’t).
Nearly 30 American professors and students, just back from a trip to visit academics in Baghdad, have signed a statement calling for scholars to oppose a U.S. war with Iraq and instead to create academic exchanges with the country.
The trip, dubbed an “Academic Airlift,” is the first of three planned visits to Iraq by American faculty members and was organized by Conscience International, an Atlanta-based humanitarian-aid organization. Subsequent trips are scheduled this spring and fall.
Their statement, and a list of the signatories, can be found on Conscience International’s web site.
Don’t get your hopes (or fears) up; these people are not academic superstars. In fact, just to show you what a one track (if that) mind I have, after I read the first sentence of their statement — “We are a diverse group of independent academics…” — I found myself reading the list wondering who was white and who was black or Hispanic or Native American. That’s what “diverse” means now, doesn’t it?
