The language of world geography

Ward Churchill has some competition! And here I thought Colorado was full of rancher republicans. If you haven't heard the unhinged geography teacher caught on tape in the classroom, give it a listen. It's available over at LGF. I like maps, but apparently a lot has changed since I attended high school.

This guy is clearly an angry, disaffected farleftwingmoonbat. He's hardly the social studies teacher in Beavis and Butthead - the laid-back aging hippie. Rather, he represents the new aggressive democrat underground version. By the way, expect the left to accuse this kid of being an NSA prospect, since he likes to cladestinely record people.

But, the nutty perfessor's rant does bring up some good talking points. For instance, how does America win the war on terror, regardless of who occupies the White House? Such a thing calls for a big-picture strategy, not just tactical mole-whacking.

In essence, everyone would probably agree we need to remove the underlying root causes that foster the al Qaedas of the world before having any chance at success. More suscinctly, we need to overturn the economic and social conditions that give rise to strongman leaders ruling via pack mentality, and one way is by raising the standard of living in the third world.

Bush's big picture answer is pretty simple--spread freedom and give the peoples of the world the chance at self-governance, whereupon they might decide to divest themselves of said thuggery. We'll still have to kill the hard-core Wahabbis since they leave us no choice, but the goal is making it harder for them to recruit from the moderate ranks.

The alternative seems to be never-ending capitulation to dictators or terrorists by simply handing over part of yearly GNP. Problem is, any short term good from that would probably evaporate into long term extortion, and most of the money would simply disappear into the pockets of the corrupt leaders for nest-feathering or more WMDs. We've already had some experience with this sort of fix, and we've seen first hand that throwing money at problems doesn't always work well.

Not to say America is perfect, but we alone did not create all the ills of this world. That's something the far left fails to understand. Try rewriting history without America and see where it leaves the planet. Our "moonbat of the moment" teacher can only see the CIA stations and exploding bombs while totally ignoring the greater good we've accomplished, and it's considerable. It's a short-sighted view, but it supports a Lennon-ist idealism--imagine all the people, living life in peace with no religion, etc, etc. Utopia doesn't exist here and never will.

Don't get me wrong I'm a fan of open debate in the classroom, but what this tax-payer funded public servant did went beyond that. His thin rationale was basically, "let's look at both sides of the issue so I can ram mine down your throat", none of which had to do with the capital of Peru.

Finally, lots of folks will be yelling to fire the man. I like giving people second chances, so my suggestion would be to allow him the opportunity to get back to teaching geography without his personal diatribes. He probably has a mortgage just like me. If he refuses, then it's time for him to "move on". Maybe Churchill has an opening.

THE LONG VIEW 3/3/06

Bush provided a glimpse of his long view strategy of winning the GWoT prior to his security-cloaked visit to Pakistan:

"I will meet with President Musharraf to discuss Pakistan's vital cooperation in the war on terror and our efforts to foster economic and political development so that we can reduce the appeal of radical Islam," Bush said. "I believe that a prosperous, democratic Pakistan will be a steadfast partner for America, a peaceful neighbor for India and a force for freedom and moderation in the Arab world."

The battle involves more than bombs.