Headlines @ U.Va.

Slow Down, Christian Soldiers?
Close on the heels of relief workers headed to Iraq are evangelical Christian missionaries armed with relief goods of their own - and Bibles. Their message may not be welcomed, however, warned religious studies professor Abdulaziz Sachedina. “The Iraq war is being interpreted in religious terms by Muslims around the world as a war against Islam, and this is dangerous,” he told the New York Times. He suggested that the Christian groups hold off, at least for a time, before heading for Iraq.
– (New York Times, April 6)

No count on Iraqi Casualties
How many Iraqis died in the war? There’s no telling - at least not by the U.S. military. The Pentagon is no longer counting enemy dead. “This is very much driven by the Vietnam experience,” said Vietnam vet Robert F. Turner, now associate director of U.Va.’s Center for National Security Law. “[Former Defense Secretary Robert] McNamara was into quantifying everything to do with the war. His idea was, ‘Let’s count the number of enemy dead,’ with high body counts meaning you were doing a good job. So you would literally go out and see arms and legs and body parts” after a battle. But public reaction and reports of over-counting scotched that policy, he said. “We don’t count bodies. We say we’ve degraded the division by 40 to 50 percent,” he said, noting that the percentages include people and equipment.
– (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 6)

Wanted: Skilled Workers, All Shifts
Remember the career advice Dustin Hoffman received in the 1967 film “The Graduate”? Hoffman’s character had just returned from college and was being feted at a cocktail party when one of his parent’s friends pulls him aside and insists, “There’s a great future in plastics.” Today, college grads may still have a future in plastics. Analysts project a shortage of skilled workers in the manufacturing sector, despite it having shed some 2 million jobs in the last two years. Some companies have been slow to recognize the trend, reports Industry Week magazine. “If you are waiting to see if you have a problem,” warns Darden School professor Robert Spekman, “it’s too late.”
– (Industry Week, May 1)

Hero of the Hills
Politics professor and oft-quoted pundit Larry Sabato thought the bluegrass theme song of Mark Warner’s 2001 gubernatorial campaign was hokey and annoying, but Dave “Mudcat” Saunders - the brains behind the successful strategy to woo rural “NASCAR Democrats” - didn’t care. “I wasn’t going after Larry Sabato’s vote,” he said. “I was going after Bubba Sabato.” Now Saunders and partner Steve Jarding are seeking the same votes for Florida Sen. Bob Graham, a Democratic presidential candidate. And Sabato is an admirer, even if he doesn’t like the music. “Jarding and Saunders deserve a lot of credit for focusing Warner on the rural areas,” he said. “Their strategy worked.”
– (St. Petersburg [Fla.] Times,
April 9)