Stalking Atrios

Links ripped right off Atrios' page.

The first indicator of what a Saddam-free education will look like is arriving this month, as millions of newly revised textbooks roll off the printing presses to be distributed to Iraq's 5.5 million schoolchildren in 16,000 schools. All 563 texts were heavily edited and revised over the summer by a team of US-appointed Iraqi educators. Every image of Saddam and the Baath Party has been removed.

But so has much more - including most of modern history. Pressured for time, and hoping to avoid political controversy, the Ministry of Education under the US-led coalition government removed any content considered "controversial," including the 1991 Gulf War; the Iran-Iraq war; and all references to Israelis, Americans, or Kurds.

"Entire swaths of 20th-century history have been deleted," says Bill Evers, a US Defense Department employee, and one of three American advisers to the Ministry of Education.

..."We considered anything anti-American to be propaganda and we took it out," says Fuad Hussein, the Iraqi in charge of curriculum for the Ministry of Education. article

Get those schools up and running faster.



Liberal views force soldier out of military

I am writing this in response to a series of letters published by The Item, beginning with my own letter on March 14, 2003 titled "Bush Shows Arrogance Not Leadership." In it, I discussed the relevance of United Nations approval prior to the War in Iraq, as well as the consequences of "going at it alone." Following the printing of my letter, a pair of readers retaliated by attacking my loyalty and ability to "cover their son's back." The more striking of the two had this to say:

"If Sgt. E-5 Ferriol is who he says he is and is in the job he claims he is in, I think about now he will be in front of his commander answering a lot of questions concerning his loyalty, the enlistment oath and above all the oath he took to get the security clearance to be in the job he claims to be in. ...I took what I think is the correct action, cut the article out of the paper, wrote a cover letter and sent it to the DoD for action."

I would like to take this opportunity to let Mr. Simpson know that I am who I say I am and I was in the job I said I was in. I honorably served my country for eight years in the United States Marine Corps; providing honest intelligence analysis and collecting countless awards and promotions throughout my career. I was also a leader and mentor to scores of young men and women. In those eight years, I sacrificed more of myself for this country than most men and women ever will in their lifetime.

But, thanks to the zeal and quick judgment of this individual, I am no longer serving our beloved country. His forecast was correct. Following his letter to DoD, I was brought up on charges of "Disloyal Statements" under Article 134 of the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice). Not because anything I wrote was disloyal, but because of my political views and how they differ from Mr. Simpson and others like him. The unfortunate aspect of this is not my demise, but their inability to understand or accept the opinions of others as different from their own.

Nonetheless, I was forced to retain an attorney and undergo weeks of scrutiny before being cleared of the charges. I was, however, never allowed to work in Intelligence again; forced to separate the Marine Corps over threats that I would not be allowed to reenlist. Never mind the fact that there is not one single negative mark on my entire eight years of service (the letter incident was considered "hush-hush" so not even that made it on my record), or the fact that every one of my superiors stood up for me during this time, praising my abilities and loyalty to this country. None of that mattered; only my "liberal beliefs."

Thank you Mr. Simpson. (I wonder if that's his real name, or if that's a reference to Homer.) It's good to know there are alert citizens out there keeping our military flushed of traitors like Sgt. Ferriol.

Context

I didn't jump on the "secret offer to stop the war" article, because I thought it was rather silly. Clearly, once war was imminent, Saddam Hussein was willing to saw off his own arm and mail it to Dick Cheney in a barrel of oil if it would have stopped the war. Elton Beard, taking a break from his shorter duties, reminds us of another last minute rejected attempt to stop the war.

I didn't "jump on" that story, either, because I thought it was obvious what the answer would be: "Saddam had jerked us around for 12 years, he had plenty of time to make a deal, this was just more last minute stalling." That's what they'd been saying anyway. I think this whole secret offer business is a personal maneuver on the part of the guy who "leaked" it. It may be true, but what good does it do now? None. And, as I say, I'm sure if it had come out at the time, the Hawkheads would have just said, "More stalling".

This war was inevitable, if not from the moment Bush was elected, from the moment he said "Fuck Saddam. We're taking him out." in March of '02.

When you google "fuck Saddam" some pretty creepy things come up.... -Atrios 9:57 AM

I'll leave that for you to do.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.