That boy means business. This is something from the BBC
These little boys, what a shame Saddam had to scew up their minds.
Posted on 04/06/2003 11:30:32 AM PDT by GulliverSwift
In Bid to Shape a Postwar Iraq, U.S. Goes by the Schoolbook
By David B. Ottaway and Joe Stephens
Washington Post Staff writers
Sunday, April 6, 2003; Page A32
When the new Iraqi school year begins in five months, the Bush administration hopes to have in place wholesale revisions to textbooks that have taught a generation of Iraqis to be ready to die for Saddam Hussein.
The revisions are part of an ambitious U.S. effort to demilitarize a school curriculum that has touted Iraqi battlefield prowess and weaponry and demonized the United States as a fearsome enemy.
Expatriates and scholars point to that curriculum, in place for the past quarter-century, as one explanation for the diehard devotion of the suicide bombers and fanatical militiamen that Hussein is threatening to unleash in the final defense of Baghdad. More than half of Iraq's youthful population knows no other form of schooling.
Already, Iraqi expatriates working with the State Department are discussing strategies for devising a whole new approach to education.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) is preparing to award education-related contracts worth an estimated $65 million. Creative Associates International of Northwest Washington, considered the front-runner for the contract, heads a coalition that recently won a $16.5 million contract for similar educational reform in Afghanistan.
Foreign aid documents obtained by The Washington Post suggest the Bush administration plans to repeat its Afghan strategy, which showcased schools as a quick and highly visible demonstration of improvements stemming from U.S. intervention.
Stakes are high. A recent study by international security experts described the reconstruction of Iraq as a "test case" that will go far in establishing the United States' enduring image in the Islamic world.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Is this a joke?
Pupils as young as 6 then opened textbooks decorated with colorful photos of Hussein in fatigues and pressed uniforms, saluting and smiling and reviewing troops. Other pages displayed photographs of tanks, machine guns and grenade launchers.
"What a horrible thing to teach kids," said Suwaij, now 32 and living in Boston.
The Bush admin. realizes the power of the educational system in Iraq, but it also needs to face the problem here at home. The NEA probably indoctrinates just as well as Saddam, and probably better, given what a sham job the Iraqis have done in teaching "constant readiness to fight enemies."
The scouting organizations, each tailored to a particular age group, are known by a variety of names: Saddam's Cubs,
The Cub Scouts, huh? Saddam must of picked that one up on a trip to America.
Before the 1991 Gulf War, the Iraqi education system ranked among the best in the Arab world, producing a high literacy rate and a large middle class filled with professionals. But the war and subsequent U.N. sanctions brought sharp deterioration.
Those darn Americans, it used to be perfect until they came along.
"We have experts on child psychology," added Suwaij, who sits on the education committee. "A lot of work is going to be how to de-Baath-ize these kids, to make them like regular human beings."
Uh oh, "experts." I hope they don't turn these kids into little NEAs.
That boy means business. This is something from the BBC
These little boys, what a shame Saddam had to scew up their minds.
Not just the Arab world. Schools are also "main sources of anti-western, anti-Christian resentment" here in America, because of the NEA.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.