The Boston Globe
June 22, 2003, Sunday ,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: GLOBE WEST; Pg. 6
BYLINE: EMILY SWEENEY

A Watertown activist group will host a public forum Wednesday to discuss the effects of war on the Iraqi people. Leading the discussion will be Kathleen Kelly, cofounder of Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign to end economic sanctions and war against Iraq, and Carl Conetta, codirector of the Project for Defense Alternatives.

The Project for Defense Alternatives began in 1991 to explore how armed forces would change after the Cold War, Conetta said.

“I’m going to talk a bit about so-called new warfare, precision warfare, and the claims made for it,” he said. “We wage wars that are more clean than wars that have been waged previously, and we have a messy outcome. The broader issue is: Can the emphasis on regime removal, can this path lead to the type of stability we’re looking for and guarantee to undermine the problems of terrorism?”

“We can win cleanly and quickly on the battlefield, but then there’s a chaotic outcome. What are the alternatives?”

Conetta, who has written about security issues for The Boston Globe and The Washington Post, often speaks at universities about these issues. He said he is looking forward to hearing from people who attend the forum, which is hosted by the Watertown Citizens for Environmental Safety’s Justice With Peace Task Force.

“I’m interested to see what types of attitudes people have about the war,” Conetta said. “I can read polls like anyone else, but it’s much different when you interact with people.”

“The Cost of War and Occupation: What Haven’t We Been Told?” will begin at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday in St. John’s Methodist Church at 80 Mt. Auburn St. in Watertown.