Killers in the Classroom
Posted on February 18, 2007
Filed Under Politics, Teaching | Comments Off
I don’t have any Iraq war veterans in my classes, but I am heartily sick of the hagiography of “the troops” that is almost universal in American culture at the moment. This short essay by Dr. Jane Scorza Terpstra rings true. I’ve heard virtually the same thing from students who haven’t gone to Iraq, but who would endorse the necessity of the war & even of torture & terror tactics from the safety of the “homeland.” Here is an excerpt
What appears to trouble the soldier student is that the rhetoric of fighting for freedom and democracy is a lie that cannot blanket the horror and guilt of their terrorism. They do not want to hear that participation in invasion and occupation, murder and pillaging, is logically inconsistent with any legitimate concept of freedom or liberation. They know the greed and programmed lust for violence that motivates them. They expect that if they can make it out alive, they get some money, a comfortable lifestyle and an education. Their plan is to secure the oil, the diamonds, the gold, the water, the guns, the drugs, and the bling for their masters, who they hope will cut them in on the swag. They say that someone has to be on top and they want to be on the side of the strong, not the weak. Robbing Hoods, not Robin Hoods.
And now, here they sit in my course on social justice, terrorist war criminals, wanting high paying “criminal justice†jobs in a university Justice Studies program. They want approval, appreciation and honors for terrorism, torture, and murder. They want a university degree so they can get an even higher salary terrorizing more people around the world with security companies such as Blackwater or Halliburton. They want that appropriately named “sheepskin†so they can join the CIA, FBI, and other police and track down and terrorize US residents here. [_via_ Wood s Lot]
