No fires set, I don't think, but..... two out of my three DBC classes seemed fairly appalled by the info on the new Military Commissions Act that our Congress passed last Friday. The first class had a fairly subdued, somewhat mixed reaction. A couple of comments from students who seemed to think the whole think is not so bad included, "The war on terror is unique and requires special tactics." and "I think our government should torture prisoners for information but I don't think we should make it legal." I grab the sides of my desk and try to be composed.... OK.... moving right along... what do others think???
It was clear that none of them have much of a clue about what is going on in the world or in our country. They have some very broad strokes as best. Got me to thinking that the Honors College should require a one credit current events class each semester. If our Honors students are entirely out of touch, how much hope is there for our country and be default for the world?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
People watch 24 and think "Jack Bauer is my hero, and that's how the CIA does it!" Violence is the climax of the show - there's someone who's bad and they deserve harsh treatment.
Some woman on FOX said that the high ratings for 24 are evidence of America's overwhelming support for torturing terrorists. While I don't look to America to justify my beliefs (that's called "group think," right?), I'm afraid she's right: most people assume that we torture humanely because we're in a ticking time-bomb scenario. And this hypothetical ordering of reality dictates how we play our cards. Why is this not so hypothetical? Because of 9/11. 9/11 9/11 9/11. Why can't Bush just take the same philosophy on terrorism that he takes on racism?
"I don't see color."
"I don't see terrorists."
By playing according to the ticking-time-bomb scenario, by looking only at the terrorists, one plays according to fear. And the terrorists have won already by inducing terror.
Everyone's talking about terrorists as this totally "new" enemy. Sure, they've got new tactics, and maybe deeper psych training more akin to KGB to withstand pain. And the suicidal bent is dangerous. But really they're not that different from any other enemy we've had.
Every terrorist and every soldier has a cause that they fight for. The answer to fighting terrorism to is to tap into that cause and show them alternative means to meet their goals. Terrorists fight and hate America because they love something else. What is that "something?"
Call my peaceful diplomatic approach idealism - it hasn't been tried, so there's no empirical way to prove me wrong.
Keep teaching. And pardon my late night rambling.
Thx Nelly..and hey...your idealistic idea has got to produce better results than what we are doing. We are freakin' acting as the top recruiters for any and all American hating organizations on the planet. Bush should be getting a medal of honor from Bin Laden any day.
And to top that, instead of talking about the many very serious issues on the table at present what we are getting is more scandal.
Post a Comment