Newsweek U.S. Drops Out:
The United States has quietly withdrawn from an international study comparing math and science students. In the last survey, taken in 1995, students from only two countries—Cyprus and South Africa—scored lower than U.S. school kids.
At the same time, the military is making some changes to attract more recruits in the 17 to 24 age bracket.
NPR Excerpt:
The Army is not only dangling more sign-up rewards — it's loosening rules on age and weight limits, education, drug and criminal records.
Then we have Wednesday’s Janesville Messenger article on page 7 describing the latest recruitment tool employed by the U.S. Army.
JM Excerpt:
Janesville – Not everything at last weekend’s Southern Wisconsin AirFest had to do with aviation. In the U.S. Army’s Virtual Army Experience display, participants could experience a virtual-reality simulation, in which civilians took positions in military vehicles and used joysticks and machine guns to battle the enemy in a Middle-Eastern city.
The story was your basic jingo-fare marked by quotes of virtual opportunity, education and team work painted around the reality of death and destruction. But it was the photo that said it all. Unfortunately no link is available. It depicted a willing child holding a hi-tech rifle sitting in a Hum-Vee eagerly awaiting virtual combat action.
JM Excerpt:
“It gives (participants) an opportunity to work as a team and see how team-oriented the army is” – Levi Walker, U.S. Army Virtual Army Experience Staffer
2 comments:
You leftists have been clamoring for Bush's head ever since he wouldn't let Al Gore steal the election with his selective recounts. If it hadn't been the war it would have been something else. I am amazed at the blind idiocy of people who consider parts of our own elected government to be a greater threat than uncivilized fanatical barbarians who have declared their intent to kill all of us non-Muslim 'unbelievers' worldwide.
You know, people, just because Republicans oppose public financing of solar-powered abortions for gay whales, it doesn't make us evil. You should take time for a reality check if you really think half of your fellow Americans are fundamentally different from you, just because they hold different political opinions. The terrorists would happily cut off the heads of any of us.
Lord knows the administration could have done a better job with the execution of this war, but no war has ever gone "exactly as planned." I'd even go so far as to say the Iraq war might have been fought later on, but it was going to happen eventually. After the way liberals castigated the President for not acting against the Taliban on 8 months' worth of spurious intel prior to 9-11, was he just supposed to continue Clinton's policy of ignoring Saddam Hussein's repeated violations of the cease-fire?
Saddam had repeatedly used chemical weapons in the past, and by his actions encouraged speculation that he was developing more (intelligence repeatedly cited by not just conservative warmongers, but also by Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Madeline Albright, and just about every foreign government and intelligence operation in the world.) He had been shooting at our planes patrolling the no-fly zones (which were there just to prevent Saddam from murdering more of his own citizens.) He had repeatedly (17 times) defied the UN on weapons inspections. He had attempted to have a former President, George H.W. Bush, assassinated (it is completely irrelevant that it was the President's father.) And his government had documented ties to numerous terrorist organizations. If another terrorist incident had occurred, President Bush would have rightly been considered guilty of ignoring his duty and responsibility to secure the safety of the American people.
If a rat from an abandoned building down the street got into your house and bit your child, would you be satisfied for just that particular rat to be killed? Would you cross your fingers and hope that you would see any more that tried to come in so you could kill them? Or would the most logical and responsible thing be to see to it that the building was cleaned up, to get rid of the rest of the vermin?
For too long, the world has ignored the sub-civilized dysfunctional rathole of the Middle East. After the Afghanistan, going to Iraq was the next step in cleaning house. It could be we might have waited a bit longer before starting, and we may get bitten a few times before they're all gone, but now that we've stirred the rat nest, we can't leave until the job is done.
You're ignoring a boatload of past American complicity in the middle-east.
Our troops fulfilled their mission. Democrats just want to initiate a gradual drawdown and hand over Iraq to Iraqi's.
If this war is "thee" war of the 21st century where is our shared sacrifice?
The right-wing power players won’t swallow half of their own logic and reasoning supporting whatever direction they want the rest of us to take.
It is immoral sending the same 100,000 soldiers though a bloddy revolving door.
Tell your republican buddies to start the draft. Start with Romney's five military-age strapping sons and tell Bush's daughters to stop disappointing their daddy - they can all enlist now. If they can ship out by October, each will receive a $30,000 cash bonus - imagine what that can do for them!
Post a Comment