From: Jurriaan Bendien (adsl675281@TISCALI.NL)
Date: Tue May 01 2007 - 13:44:53 EDT
I was reading an interview with Prof. Andrew Bacevich (Boston Uni) http://www.bu.edu/ir/faculty/bacevich.html where he says: (...) people like Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz saw 9/11 as a great opportunity. Yes, it was a disaster. Yes, it was terrible. But by God, this was a disaster that could be turned to enormous advantage. Here lay the chance to remove constraints on the exercise of American military power, enabling the Bush administration to shore up, expand, and perpetuate U.S. global hegemony. Toward that end, senior officials concocted this notion of a Global War on Terror, really a cover story for an effort to pacify and transform the broader Middle East, a gargantuan project which is doomed to fail. Committing the United States to that project presumed a radical redistribution of power within Washington. The hawks had to cut off at the knees institutions or people uncomfortable with the unconstrained exercise of American power. (...) it's not because Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz are diabolical creatures intent on doing evil. They genuinely believe it's in the interests of the United States, and the world, that unconstrained American power should determine the shape of the international order. I think they vastly overstate our capabilities. For all of their supposed worldliness and sophistication, I don't think they understand the world. (...) http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=85723 But who really knows what about the world? If the NG-Roper survey is anything to go by, most Americans don't know much at all about their own "empire", if there is one. It seems to be more an elite preoccupation. National Geographic says "Americans are far from alone in the world, but from the perspective of many young Americans, they might as well be. Most young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 demonstrate a limited understanding of the world, and they place insufficient importance on the basic geographic skills that might enhance their knowledge." The findings of the 2006 National Geographic-Roper Sample Survey of Geographic Literacy among 510 persons aged 18-24 years are available here: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/roper2006/pdf/FINALReport2006GeogLitsurvey.pdf The error margin for the total sample is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points at the 95% confidence interval. The segment of people aged 18-24 years is about 10% of the total US population (my own estimate). "Young Americans answer about half (54 percent) of all the survey questions correctly. But by and large, majorities of young adults fail at a range of questions testing their basic geographic literacy." a.. Only 37% of young Americans can find Iraq on a map - though U.S. troops have been there since 2003 (the 2002 figure was 13%). Only 17% can now find Afghanistan on a map. b.. 6 in 10 young Americans don't speak a foreign language fluently, and only half think it is important. c.. 20% of young Americans think Sudan is in Asia. (It's the largest country in Africa.) d.. 75% cannot find Indonesia on a map, and do not know the majority of its population is Muslim. e.. 74% believe English is the most commonly spoken native language on earth. f.. 48% of young Americans believe the majority population in India is Muslim. (It's Hindu - by a landslide.) g.. Half of young Americans can't find New York or Ohio on a map. h.. 30% think that the USA has a population of 1 to 2 billion. i.. Although 64% can find Italy on a map of Europe, only 37% can find Britain. On average they can locate only three European countries. National Geographic concludes: "These results suggest that young people in the United States - the most recent graduates of our educational system - are unprepared for an increasingly global future. Far too many lack even the most basic skills for navigating the international economy or understanding the relationships among people and places that provide critical context for world events." http://www.nationalgeographic.com/roper2006/findings.html Jurriaan
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