Titled “Revisiting Iraq: Five Years Later” and sponsored by the New World Coalition, a student organization at Bates, the event is open to the public at no cost.

Nemitz, Cote and Cornell du Houx will discuss the war’s impacts on U.S. foreign policy, the state of Maine and young voters.

Nemitz is a popular columnist for the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram newspapers. He has traveled to Iraq three times since 2004, embedding with units of the Maine Army National Guard and the U.S. Army Reserve.

The Maine Press Association named Nemitz and Press Herald photographer Greg Rec as Maine’s 2004 Journalists of the Year for their reporting on the Guard’s 133d Engineer Battalion in Iraq.

Cote is a former Democratic candidate for Maine’s 1st Congressional District. He served in the U.S. Army in Bosnia and in Iraq, where he worked to rebuild schools, hospitals and other infrastructure. He created the “Adopt an Iraqi Village” program, distributing donated clothing, toys and household necessities to villages. His service in Iraq led to two Army Commendation Medals.

A graduate of Colby College and the University of Maine School of Law, he serves on the Renewable Energy and Governmental Relations Practice Group at the law firm of Pierce Atwood LLP in Portland.

Cornell du Houx grew up in Solon, where he attended Carrabec High School. As a student at Bowdoin College and an active member of the Brunswick community, he went into politics after returning from eight months of training with the U.S. Marine Corps in 2004.

He was deployed to Iraq with the Marines in 2006, stationed in Fallujah. He returned last spring to complete his degree and to continue serving the community of Brunswick. He is currently running for the state House of Representatives District 66 seat, representing part of Brunswick.

As Bates College gets its five-week spring Short Term into gear, the Bates Democrats sponsor three events examining the war in Iraq and American military policy. The events are open to the public at no charge.

Titled “A Short Term of Thought on U.S. Foreign Policy,” the series opens with filmmaker Walter Miale at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 3, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave. Miale will introduce, screen and discuss short films from his recent documentary compilation, Deadly Mistakes?, which offers historical background on the Iraq war and the U.S. war on terror.

Miale will also screen a preview of his new work in progress, Why Do They Hate Us?, a film about what must be done to avert the next terrorist attack on the United States.

The event is cosponsored by the sociology department, the college Office of Student Activities and the Bates Student Government.

At 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 9, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave., filmmaker Eugene Jarecki presents his documentary Why We Fight, followed by a lecture and question-and-answer period. The film, which Variety magazine called “a thoroughgoing and affecting film on the nature and causes of the American military-industrial complex,” won the 2005 Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

The event is cosponsored by the departments of history, sociology and political science, and the Office of Student Activities.

On Tuesday, May 16, the Bates Democrats host a roundtable discussion of the Iraq war, with panelists including Bates students and professors. The specific panelists, time and location have yet to be determined.

For more information about these events, please call 201-739-4489.

Scott E. Rutter, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who led his battalion in the capture of Baghdad’s airport in 2003, will discuss his Iraq experiences and make a case for the war at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 10, in Chase Lounge, 56 Campus Ave.

Sponsored by the Bates College Republicans, the college’s Representative Assembly and the Young America’s Foundation, the lecture is open to the public at no cost.

As a lieutenant colonel, Rutter commanded some 150 tanks and other fighting vehicles and more than 850 soldiers in a battalion of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq. At Bates, he will relate his personal experiences in Iraq and explain his belief that the U.S. military mission there is essential to fighting global terrorism.

Rutter’s battalion led the capture of Baghdad International Airport, and he went on to direct the security and stabilization mission in Baghdad’s central business and financial district. “He likes to get close to the fight, so close that his soldiers sometimes worry about his safety,” wrote Michael Corkery, a Providence Journal reporter embedded with Rutter’s battalion. “He insists on traveling into battle with the lead company.”

Rutter earlier received a Bronze Star for valor for his service as a rifle company commander in Operation Desert Storm.

A Philadelphia native, Rutter was a military graduate of Campbell University, Buies Creek, N.C. His Regular Army service included stints with the 101st Airborne Division and 1st Infantry Division (“The Big Red One”).

An instructor at the United States Army Infantry School during the 1990s, Rutter was appointed chief of tactics for the school in 1995. He later served in Korea. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and has a master of science degree in management from St. Mary’s College.