Reading the following:http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-john-mccain-and-his-secretive-plot-to-kill-the-un-903998.htmlone cannot help wonder about the way of the world. Don't they teach geography in the USA?
However don't think this is just a problem related to the USA as today, 21 August 2008, the U.K. P. M. is in Afghanistan claiming that what the U.K. forces are doing out there is saving the world from terrorisim, strange that since the evidence we are reading daily in the press does not seem to support that. While he was claiming to quote Abe Lincoln Bob Dylan used lyrics to the effect
You can fool half the people some of the time,
Some of the people half the time,
But not all the people all of the time.
At present who is fooling who and at what cost?
Peter
The Future of British Quakerism
4 weeks ago
2 comments:
Do you know the old yarn of the Ohio Quaker who faithfully trekked to Philadelphia every year to attend its yearly meeting sessions but never saw anyone return the favor? (Replace with "anywhere" and "London" to make it Brit-o-centric). One year he cracked and asked why it was always the outsider doing the trekking. The Philadelphia/London Quaker said "why would we travel, we're already here?" Why would Americans need to learn geography? All the Chinese electronics make it here even if we can't find the country on a map.
Seriously, it's a wonder McCain is having so many gaffes. He grew up in a military family and has spent his own career in far flung military mis-adventures and then foreign policy politics. These aren't isolated incidents, he's regularly muffing up geography and swapping major Middle Eastern political groups. But being a geography idiot didn't seem to hurt President Bush's career, maybe it's a plus in some parts of the U.S. of A. For what it's worth, I'd do well in a geography test.
Men and women are fighting out there, not for Bush's War on Terror, but for the people of Afghanistan. I know marines personally and they talk of protecting dams, providing medical care, protecting isolated villages.
It does them a disservice to portray this simply as Bush's war.
Also, you do not suggest any positive alternative.
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