Bypassing the gate guards of the conventional narrative, a US Army general and the vice-chief of the Iraqi joint forces took questions on Thursday via video teleconference. Those on the other end were high school students from a Chicago suburb:
Naperville Central High School senior Joe Cotton entered the auditorium Thursday morning believing the U.S. should give up the war in Iraq. An hour later, he was convinced that troops should stay.“I almost thought the war was a lost cause,” Cotton said. “Now I realize the U.S. forces are doing good for the Iraqi people and we can’t just abandon them.”
Also in attendance at the school was US Congresswoman Judy Biggert who “said she was impressed with the students. ‘I think they had very thoughtful questions,” she said. “Some of them even better than what I’ve heard from Congress.’”
I imagine that’s because the students are more used to learning facts than spinning them.
Nothing like a little straight talk and honest answers to give minds that are still open a fresh look at the world.
The vast wasteland of propaganda that exists in our MSM is carefully stripped of all facts that contradict the prevailing liberal mantra. That is why, for example, the Berkeley folk don’t want the USMC to be present. Control the means of communication and you control the population. That strategy worked wonders in the Soviet Union, where even access to typewriters was once controlled. The personal computer revolution broke that stranglehold. The new tactic, applied here, is political correctness and liberal constraint on give-and-take dialog.
I’d like to see how those kids would do on that civics quiz!
Indeed, political spin is a very bad thing. Political thought is infected by personal and party self-interest, something that the young people still don’t have. Young people are truly refreshing.
Who, among the MSM, would dare to publish the press conference rather than spurious, unfounded rumor or conjecture? Perhaps rather than who, I should be asking “why not?”
If I thought the “War” was a lost cause I wouldn’t have returned to Iraq last August. To say nothing of my initial deployment back in Mar, 05.I can speak for the other contractors that I know and work with on a daily basis. To a man and woman,everyone is proud of what we have accomplished over here in such a short time. The vast majority of Iraqi’s are overjoyed that things have gotten so much better and are friendly and helpful to coalition forces these days.
I haven’t been shot at since September,and I traverse the worse stretch of road in Iraq nightly.
The whole situation over here is nothing like what is portrayed by the MSM.
Darn, that’s refreshing.
‘The military leaders were able to sit in Baghdad and answer questions about the war from Naperville Central and North military history students, courtesy of a live feed by the Army’s Armed Forces Digital Video and Imagery Distribution Center.’
Kudos to the principal of the school, and the teacher/s who probably first promoted the idea. I would have LOVED to have studied military history in high school, something like that might have steered me clear of a decade of pacifistic nonsense.
Victor Hanson had a nice piece a while ago promoting Military History as an authentic Peace Studies curriculum, as opposed to the anti-American rubbish it usually is. This place sounds like a competent high school.
As noted, young minds can be open, fresh and responsive: which means teachers have a serious responsibility to provide instruction without indoctrination. Compare this story with the scenes of high school students at the Berkeley anti-Marine recruitment center protests.
Regards, P-dub.