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View Full Version : US ignorance of the world is costly,,c&p troll



LeeG
11-19-2003, 10:23 AM
This is a pet peeve of mine,,that we can't afford 9/11 type extracurricular learning experiences as to how the rest of the world operates. Having inadequate human intelligence doesn't help the soldiers on the ground "hey dude, any terrorists in there?" or by electing politicians who need advisors to cover fundamental ignorance that guides WHO they pick as an advisor. "I don't need to know who's a Wahabbi or Pashtun, vote for me and we'll kick butt!"

The cost of one CBU-108 carrying 40 groovy smart submunitions (that can't distinguish between a refugee tractor or an armoured convoy) would provide 36 of the oversees grants mentioned below,,,the cost of one F-22 will provide enough for 30,000 grants. Power and ignorance is expensive. We're a lot more likely to be an empire in decline from our own hand than a terrorist. We chose where to apply our resources, the terrorist doesn't.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59674-2003Nov18.html

WASHINGTON IN BRIEF

Wednesday, November 19, 2003; Page A05

U.S. 'Ignorance' of the World Is a Liability, Report Says

Asserting that the United States has a "serious deficit in global competence," an independent task force urged the government yesterday to increase the number of U.S. college students who learn foreign languages and study abroad.




The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were "a warning that America's ignorance of the world is now a national liability," said the report, prepared for the Association of International Educators, a private group that promotes international education and exchange. The "stubborn monolingualism and ignorance of the world" that persist in the United States fed the confusion many Americans felt after the attacks, it said.

The task force urged Congress to set aside $3.5 billion a year to fund fellowships that would allow half a million students to receive grants of up to $7,000 annually to earn college credit overseas. The goal is to have funding to support 5 million students by 2010, officials

Jim M
11-19-2003, 10:40 AM
Technology is America's God. Besides, it's profitable, which means jobs and political money, which means power.

Compared to which, things as elementary as training soldiers in Arabic, let alone cultural awareness, is trash. Wave the flag and they will come, to be expended by politicians, like they were so many "smart bombs".

Chris Coose
11-19-2003, 10:57 AM
I have never thought that US intellegence was to be used to learn different cultures, except to figure an advantage.

Watching US and Cuba has been a life-long laugh.

As I recall, when the embassy hostages were taken there wasn't a person in the place who spoke the language.

Greg H
11-19-2003, 11:12 AM
Many of us are to ignorant, apathetic or distracted to understand this.