Column a good reminder that military exists to serve

I appreciate the courage of Todd Arena and Jonathan Hustad in their Thursday guest commentary, "Public, not soldiers, must decide necessity of war." They remind us that the military, as a branch of our government, exists to provide a service to the American people. It is our responsibility as Americans to help our leaders choose when to use the military. It is also our responsibility to criticize our leaders when they make poor choices endangering the lives of our soldiers and those who will be killed by our bombs unnecessarily. It should not surprise anyone to hear these words from two men serving our country now. [Read article]

College journalists received a victory last week when a federal appellate ruled that college newspapers enjoy greater First Amendment protection than do high school newspapers. Many feared that an adverse outcome in the case would have allowed college administrators to pressure campus papers to censor popular columns like UC Berkeley's "Sex on Tuesday." The case involved student editors of The Innovator, a student paper at Governors State University, located in Chicago. The dean of students there ordered the printer of the paper not to print it without her approval. The students refused to give the dean prior review over the paper. The students sued. The paper hasn't published since. In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court held that high school officials can review and censor inappropriate articles in school papers. It's worth noting that California law prohibits censoring articles. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit followed other courts in holding that the 1988 case could not be applied to college journalists. "While it's a victory so far for college media, it's likely that the college will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court," noted Robert DeKoven, a professor at California Western School of Law and columnist for U-Wire, a syndication service for college newspapers. DeKoven noted that it is possible that the Court will accept the case for review because there is a conflict in the circuits now with regard to whether college students and high school students are the same. [Read article]

There was never any question that the U.S. (and British) forces would topple Saddam Hussein and accomplish their strategic initiatives. Last week, with images of Saddam's statues falling, and soldiers lounging around in his gorgeous palaces, it became evident that our remarkable display of technology and firepower had overcome the elite Republican Guard and toppled the Hussein power stranglehold. [Read article]