First of all, read your own link. The incidents are "alleged". Only one is reported to have occurred in the classroom. The Guard parents are performing a fact-finding, in the hope of learning that the incidents, if true, were not malicious. That doesn't sound to me like a case of something we'd have to "fuck up" a teacher for. Oh, and that's wonderful that you don't care that you're advocating vigilante assault on the basis of what is still an unsubstantiated rumor. Mind you, you're certainly in good company; there're plenty of people who want to nuke somebody in the Middle East over what happened on 9/11, and they're not terribly picky about who.



So let's examine that belief of yours that soliders need to be supported because they're doing their duty, regardless of what an individual's beliefs on the looming war that those soliders will undertake on behalf of "us". Remember Nuremburg? That's where we learned that the statement "I was only following orders" does not excuse a solider from the consequences of his action while in the performance of his duty. So please, don't get all righteous about the sacred calling of a solider. It's a obligation they willingly took on, and they will be held accountable for their actions, too. Sadly, they will held more accountable than the administration that deploys them, and for that I am terribly sorry for our troops.



As for the "socialist liberal" crack, you haven't been around a school lately, have you? If you had been, you'd see our students forced to recite the Pledge every day, or risk the teasing and condemnation of the faculty and the fellow students. Here in Madison, WI, you'd see a student-organized anti-war group discussion cancelled by the school board, because they failed to provide "sufficient voice" to the opposing side. A "pro-troops rally", which is a very thinly disguised pro-war movement event, was allowed to proceed without even a passing nod to the idea that there was an opposing view. You think our schools are cranking out little automatons? Well, you're right, but they're far from socialist liberals. They are, however, well-indoctrinated in the gospel of materialism, and most of them wouldn't expend the effort necessary to consider this issue deeply enough to write your blog entry, or my response to it.



It will be left for history to say whether this war in Iraq was a mistake or not. It is inevitable, I feel, and I also feel it is a mistake. I'm not so quick to excuse those who will pull the triggers, duty or no.

There's enough evidence (on enough different sites) that I feel pretty comfortable with my level of outrage. And, no, I don't want to nuke anyone, although I'm fairly sure that my stance on Iraq is fairly obvious. I also hope you realize that some of what I say is tinted with hyperbole. Although I would most certainly have words with any teacher who said those things to my child.



As a former member of the military, I understand that every soldier has to account for the actions that they take--but making the comparison between the two situations is a bit on the hysterical side. If our political and military leadership ever issues an order to round all those of Iraqi descent up and put them in gas chambers, I would hope that every soldier would reject that order.



And, yeah, actually I have been around schools and teachers recently. My girlfriend is a math specialist in a Colorado school district working with teachers from middle school to high school levels. And let me tell you, not only is she more liberal (although fairly centrist and in favor of action in Iraq), nearly every teacher that I've met through her is extremely liberal. We talked about what the teachers were "alleged" to have done, and she feels the same sense of outrage that I feel. I don't think teachers should use their positions as bully pulpits for either side of the debate. Unlike you, though, i think they get far more of your view in my school than they do mine. And, no, most of them wouldn't expend the necessary effort to join this discussion--and that in and of itself is a sad (but entirely different) conversation.



The only mistake about Iraq was that we let the wound fester for a decade instead of finishing the job we set out for the first time. It would, in my opinion, be a horrible mistake to allow it to fester further.



Notably, here in Denver, we not only see pro-troops rally, we see anti-war rallies. A balanced view is not sitting a child down and saying, in essence, "your parent is a horrible person and is about to do horrible things." That's just a personal attack.



Thanks for your comments, though. I enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoyed disagreeing with them (and, yes, that was said with a friendly grin).

zombyboy [resurrectionsong@yahoo.com]

this IS true---and yet, despite my qualifications as a serious scientist and hsitorian, I could not buy a job teaching in a public school! What does that tell you?