Last fall Vanderbilt students had the rare opportunity in an interdisciplinary class called “The War in Iraq” to take an in-depth look at the facts on the ground in Iraq between 2003 and the present. Humanities 161 was co-taught by political scientist Katherine Carroll and Mike Newton, professor of the practice of law. The focus was on the U.S. military and its response to a variety of challenges it has faced in Iraq. The course grew out of Carroll‘s year in Baghdad as an embedded professor with the U.S. Army.