To the Point

US Troops, the UN and Iraq

Some 148,000 American troops are deployed in Iraq, many of them since September. Twice the 3rd Infantry has been told it could come home, and twice that promise has been withdrawn. A new rotation plan-s been announced, but it-s not clear where the replacements will come from. America also has troops in Korea, Afghanistan and the Balkans, and it-s already called up the National Guard and a lot of reserves. Is it time to ask the United Nations to help ease the burden? Would that mean swallowing national pride? Is the UN even equipped to finish what America-s only begun? We discuss troop morale and replacement, and the ongoing search for Saddam Hussein with a correspondent in Baghdad and international security experts, including a former counter-intelligence officer with the US Marines and a former British ambassador to the UN. Making News: Comedy Icon Bob Hope Dies at 100 Born the year the Wright Brothers flew the first plane, he has 75 films, 475 TV specials, 1000 radio shows, 12 books and countless awards--including the Medal of Freedom and a British knighthood--to his name. Bob Hope died last night in Los Angeles at the age of 100. On Hope-s birthday this May, Todd Purdum wrote an extensive appreciation for the New York Times. Purdum looks back on the life of the beloved American icon. Reporter's Notebook: New Dating of Siberian Site Shuffles Migration Theory For decades, school children have been taught that human beings first came to America during the last Ice Age, across a land bridge from Siberia that-s now covered by water. New evidence suggests that the first Native Americans may have come here by boat. Anthropologist Michael Waters is associate director of Texas A&M University's Center for the Study of the First Americans.