[NLA] critical concerns about US foreign policy

[George E. Demetrion]

To  Sondra, Elsa, Janet, Eileen, Debbie, Andrea and Mev

Thanks very much for that critical posting on US Iraqi policy.  I share
your concerns.

With the Administration, I agree that there's a serious concern over
homeland security and that the world, at least for the US, has changed as
a result of 9-11-01.  

The concern is one thing, and that requires intelligent response.  What I
view as the geopolitical fundamentalism of the Bush policy on Iraq is
another matter.  While enemies do abound outside the borders of the US,
our collective hands are far from clean.  Polarizing this issue with a
religious-like war (with Christian language explicitly inserted) between
absolute good and evil is another matter.

Indeed, this topic of US Iraqi policy might play an important role in any
civics curriculum, from K-12 to college to adult basic education, and the
matter needs to be examined very critically from multiple perspectives.

On a very much related note, it was reported yesterday that the
President's political advisor, Karl Rove met with the Republican
congressional leadership to assure conservatives that the President would
not be  moving to the center as preparation for the 2004 election.  As
reported, the conservative Republican leadership has decided to sink or
swim together on their (what can only be described as) narrow ideology,
though, one would assume, Bush will be using centrist rhetoric to
disseminate the illusion that the conservative platform is synonymous
with the US mainstream.

All of these matters of political culture (including contestable views of
various political persuasions) could be incorporated into a viable adult
literacy curriculum.  Perhaps the new NIFL Board members would agree that
such openness to distinctive political and ideological perspectives is
essential to the flourishing of citizenship education, which the Bush
Administration is touting in the US Department of Education's recent
Strategic Plan.

 On US Iraqi policy, my more extensive comments can be found in the
following document, Reflections on US Iraqi Policy:  A Critique of
Rightward Thinking, Secular and Religious, a collection of listserv
postings from another list and related material.  While I don't claim
expertise on this issue, I do view myself as a relatively informed
citizen, and it's from that perspective that I raise the issues that I do
in the document.

(http://www.ctconfucc.org/resources/theology/PoliticalTheology.pdf)

George Demetrion
Sophocles5 at juno.com


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