Even after another week of bad news from Iraq, the latest public opinion polls show a slim majority of Americans are committed to staying there until a stable government can be established. Public support for the war has held steady for months, even when the administration’s case for it moved from WMD to democracy and human rights. But now, the ground under President Bush’s feet appears to be shifting.

Today’s Newsweek poll has Democrat John Kerry leading Bush by seven points despite the fact that the Bush campaign outspent Kerry seven-to-one on TV ads in March. And while Kerry appears to be benefiting from America’s anxiety over Iraq, he has yet to stake out new ground on what the U.S. should do there.

Guests:

Les Gelb, President Emeritus, Council on Foreign Relations

John Mueller, Professor of Political Science at Ohio State University, author of “Policy and Opinion in the Gulf War ”

Richard Wolffe, Washington Correspondent for Newsweek.

After years of studying the world’s great religions, Yvonne Seng decided she had had enough of doctrine and dogma. It was time to meet the “men in black dresses,” the people she calls the wisdom makers of the Middle East.

In a journey that took her to desert monasteries, Sufi enclaves, ancient cathedrals and mosques, she sought out and spoke to leaders of some of the world’s oldest religions, about what she calls “the state of the human soul in the new age of technology.” But instead of hearing the fire and brimstone of fundamentalists, she found men of faith who believe that religion has a place above politics and economics, but who worry that technology and dogma are destroying our best selves.

Guests:

Yvonne Seng, author of “Men in Black Dresses: A quest for the future among wisdom makers of the Middle East” and professor of Islamic Studies at Wesley Theological Seminary.

With the violence spreading from Basra to Falluja, from Nasiriya to Ramadi, the U.S. military is fighting the war it never wanted in Iraq. When American tanks rolled into Baghdad exactly a year ago today, it was a turning point for a people who had lived under Saddam Hussein for more than 30 years. But the transition to a new Iraqi government, which is set to officially take place on June 30th, is now in doubt and some political leaders are starting to search for a new exit strategy.

Now with a loose coalition of Sunni and Shia Iraqis, joining together to oppose America’s presence, U.S. troops face a new enemy. The Pentagon is considering sending more soldiers and extending deployments for those already there.

Guests:

Colonel Randy Gangle, Executive Director of the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities in Quantico Viriginia

also served as commanding officer of the 5th Marine Regiment during Operation Desert Storm

Pamela Hess, Pentagon Correspondent for UPI

Thanassis Cambanis, reporter for the Boston Globe based in Baghdad.

Condoleeza Rice goes before the 9-11 Commission. We bring you a two-hour special with live coverage of her testimony and analysis and reaction with former U.S. weapons inspector David Kay.

Guests:

Dr. David Kay, former U.N. chief weapons inspector.

Guests:

Dan Neil, Pulitzer Prize winner for Criticism
Matt Davies, Pulitzer Prize winner for Editorial Cartooning

It’s been a week of the deadliest fighting in Iraq since President Bush declared an end to major combat operations one year ago.

12 U.S. marines were killed in an ambush in the Sunni triangle city of Ramadi; this while deadly fighting continues in neighboring Fallujah.

This Sunni resistance to the American-led occupation of Iraq is not new; these are many of the Saddam loyalists who lost power and prestige when the U.S. ousted the Iraqi president.

The anger that has been brewing among tens of thousands of Shiites in cities south of Baghdad came to a head this week, spurred on by a radical Shiite cleric with his own militia — and a message of violence against the occupation. The new front — and new foe — in the war in Iraq.

Guests:

Amatzia Baram, visiting senior fellow at the United States Institute of Peace and scholar of Iraqi politics

Robert Orr, executive director for research at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government

Dan Murphy, Arab World Correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor

Fuad Hussein, adviser to the Ministry of Education

Changing people’s minds isn’t easy. Advertisers and politicians spend their lives trying to master the art. Pollsters try to make it a science. Spouses and parents and lovers, well they try to do it every waking moment.

There are so many agendas, and so many interests aimed at influencing our minds that we almost reflexively resist. The psychologist Howard Gardner has come up with a framework for understanding how we change our minds, and what it takes to engineer that mental U turn. He shows how the master persuaders, people like Gandhi and Margaret Thatcher did it, and using examples of ordinary people, Gardner shows us just how to drive significant shifts from one way of thinking to a dramatically new direction. Sounds dubious?

Guests:

Howard Gardner, author of “Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People’s Minds.”

After September 11, Americans started seeing this country in different ways. Airplanes were no longer just convenient machines that connected us to different cities; instead they were seen as targets of terrorists, something to be fiercely protected and regulated. And more recently, after the attack on Madrid’s railway system, trains lost their benign reputation as a safe way to travel.

Stephen Flynn is a former Commander of the Coast Guard, and he has one more for us. He says the country’s ports are being been left off the map of Homeland Security. Too much of what comes in through the ports is unexamined, he says, and the economic and security risks posed by an attack are too big to ignore, but still, he says, all the money is being spent in cities and mountains and overseas rather than here on the waterfront.

Guests:

Stephen Flynn, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Retired U.S. Coast Guard Commander, author of the forthcoming book, “America the Vulnerable: How Our Government is Failing to Protect us from Terror”

Anne Moise, Vice President of Port Security at the South Carolina State Ports Authority in Charleston, South Carolina.

There are a lot of ways to measure history. In centuries, by revolutions, or in inches. That’s right, inches. Anthropometric historians make their living by taking the measure of man and woman quite literally, tracing time’s arc by plotting just how high contemporary humans stand above or below their ancestors.

History shows that height matters. It’s becoming anatomical shorthand for prosperity of both the biological, and economic kind. Taller people just do better; they earn more money, live longer, and get to look down on everyone else. For much of the last 200 years, Americans enjoyed the prestige of being the world’s tallest people. But new research shows that they have now fallen behind their European cousins.

Guests:

Burkhard Bilger, writer for The New Yorker.

The convict must pay a debt to society. The principle is central to the justice system. But for millions of Americans, a felony conviction not only means going off to prison, but losing the right to vote long after they get out. In some cases, for life.

There is a new movement stirring in states across the country to restore voting rights to all the felons who sit on the sidelines. Some argue that by taking way their right to vote, felons lose a voice as citizens; and their communities are further marginalized. Others counter that opening up the ballot box to convicted murders and rapists, would allow untrustworthy and irresponsible people to help make laws for the rest of society.

Guests:

John Lott, American Enterprise Institute

Deborah Goldberg, Brennan Center for Justice

Krutel Joseph, convicted felon in FL

Jazz Hayden, convicted felon in NY.