No, this is not some twisted connection to the Academy Awards.

This is a dire plea for the American people to rethink our national defense criteria. Although it is the motto of our defense department to protect the people of the United States, Bush's new national defense agenda will actually decrease our national security.

While most students were still celebrating the basketball victory or rooting for Gladiator Sunday night, a small audience was in the Modern Languages building listening to Lt. Col. Robert M. Bowman, Ph.D., speak about the Star Wars program. Bowman directed every Department of Defense "Star Wars" - formally named the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization - program under Presidents Ford and Carter, back when the program was still top-secret.

In 1944, the world was horrified by Germany's annihilation of the allied forces with V-1 and V-2 missiles during World War II. The United States was further unnerved when they discovered an extensive Nazi plan to develop the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program. Learning this after the war, the United States began researching and developing interceptors that could destroy attacking ballistic missiles. The result was the formation of the Star Wars program.