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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (91042)	12/17/2004 3:24:15 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793896

Barnett - From a self-confessed teacher's pet Nice email I chose to share: From: The teacher in [city withheld] 'burbs... As a behavioral specialist working with severely emotionally/behaviorally disordered kids, one of my classes is a 'pull-out' (non-mainstreamed) social science course where the curriculum delves into what I term as the four major catalysts that drive/have driven history: a) economics; b) politics (political philosophy); c) cultural development (sociology); and and our current semester project... d) religion. Generally speaking, these kids hate school, they hate teachers, and hate the planet in general. They find no intrinsic value in education and would rather be "4:20'd" the better part of their day if they could. The other day I was presenting a discussion on violence in world religions. For some odd reason, the kids perked up and started asking questions about the general threads of violence in Judaism, Christianity, and of course, Islam. When the question was asked: "Why does it seem that Islam is so violent and the other two aren't?", I responded with what I thought would be a mini-lesson on the Core and the Non-integrated Gap...phrased in HS vernacular of the traditional "HAVES", and "WANNA HAVES" v. the "HAVE NOTS", and the "PISSED OFF BECAUSE THEY DON"T HAVE"/DON'T WANTS". It carried on for nearly 40', with brains actually thinking, with comments that didn't reflect how much school sucks or how BS my class was. I got questions like: "You mean if the countries that get along because they have too much to lose [the Core], work together to shrink the pissed off rogue countries and the ones that don't have squat, that terrorism and wars might eventually go away?", and "So is this why we're fighting in Iraq?", and "Will Afghanistan and Pakistan really buy into this stuff?". They actually GOT IT!!!! They understood. The irony is that a group of screwed up, disconnected kids who hate rule sets in their own lives, clearly understood an advanced lesson on global geopolitics, and there are people you face everyday who remain complete skeptics and naysayers. The joy is...indirectly, you helped me reach some really tough kids...and for at least one day in their lives, they chose to learn!!! Thanks, [name withheld] The sad thing is--of course--impact like this does nothing for . . . THE FLEET!

To: LindyBill who wrote (91042)	12/17/2004 3:43:26 AM
From: KLP	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793896

It will be interesting to see what Kristol says to this: Listen to Bill Kristol, who's really one helluva jackass whenever he opens his mouth on military matters (specifically here, Rumsfeld's poor reply to the soldier about "up-armoring"):>>>>> Also, it seems to me that there is a fair amount of blame to go around here....In the 90's, Clinton Adm was hell bent on cutting the military, not only people, but facilities, and supplies, and equipment. The entire Congress knew that and had to vote appropriately (or not)....including McCain, and Lott (yyuk)..... The military Generals in the field today have all said they have enough personnel in Iraq so far. Rumsfeld has to go with what they say. Per Barnett: Yes, everyone should bitch about the lack of armor for our troops in Iraq, and we should hold the Pentagon's feet to the fire on this issue. But let's remember where this problem began, with the hard Right's refusal to deal with the world as they found it across the 1990s. The Powell Doctrine is a Republican creation, and its essence was the desire to avoid nation-building and peacekeeping at all costs. That bias created the armor problems we have today in the Army in Iraq, because you don't buy for what you're unwilling to do.