For anyone who cares to go on record; 1). Should the U S intervene in Syria or pressure NATO or the UN to do so? If so, what should be the form of the intervention? 2). Should the financing and curriculum selection of k-12 schools be left solely to localities? 3)? Should the US either bomb Iranian nuclear facilities or encourage Israel to do so? Why or why not?
1. Won't spend five seconds the rest of my life caring what happens in Syria. Not saying I don't care about the people there, but Don Quixote can only charge so many windmills and I'm sitting this one out. Reality is Syria brings just about nothing to the world stage and it sucks to be the low man on the totem pole. Maybe Erin Brokovich can champion their cause. 2. "Localities" can vary by region, but in general I'd like to see as much funding pushed down to the town, city or county level. Let them figure out how to best manipulate their tax bases. I'd prefer states set curriculum and would like there to be state specific history and civics so that high schoolers would have a broader knowledge of states rights and limits. If towns and states want more control of their funding and curriculum quit passing illiterates. Localities only have themselves to blame for most of their oversihgt and requirements. 3. Indifferent. If the Israeli's want a whack at the Iranians I wouldn't stand in their way. News reports last week said Obama is looking to reduce our nuclear stockpile. Us widening the Straits of Hormuz or turning some mountains in to valleys wouldn't change my blood pressure either.
1. Provide humanitarian aid directly, any intervention should be done by the Arab League. The urban terrain here is too exposed and densely populated for any direct military action by the west to be successful. Support any Arab League military action indirectly. 2. Solely? No (There needs to ve some uniformity in core curriculum, Mississippi and Texas are having a tough enough time). The local level should control most aspects within a broader framework and be responsible for performance. 3. No, or at least not yet. I still feel a political revolution is possible in Iran. Continue to apply pressure on all fronts. Tacitly allow Israel's sabotage campaign and cyber attacks. Step up intelligence efforts. There may come a time when a direct attack is required, but it isn't right now. Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
1/ It's impossible making an opinion here without knowing the secret info & other background (intel etc). As ugly & awful as what's going on, we forget that most people around the globe still live under various forms of tyranny... and many, many, people have died (over the ages) trying to get freedom. This is no different. It's a reminder of how rare & special our freedom is, and what others sacrificed for it. I hope the people (helping out & giving aid) make good decisions. 2/ It's not a constitutional mandate, so (IMO) it's solely up to the states. That's how it worked for most of our history, and people 100 years ago had better knowledge (education of a LOT of things) than people today. WTF! Our college system operates more in an independent mode, and there's no national popular desire to put all our universities under some czar or single government control (yet ). Our entire system of government was designed to limit the influence & power from Washington, and give it to more local entities. There was a good reason for that kind of thinking. My own opinion is that the digital revolution is going to impact schools A LOT in the near future. Just like music, film, print, TV, phone communication, etc, has changed dramatically from technology. The education business will push back, like all those other industries did... but the cost savings & ability to customize individual learning (efficiency) with digital hybrid systems will win out. You just can't go against nature. 3/ A Nuke attack would only have a temporary effect. The reason is those bunkers (underground housing the centrifuges) were built by German companies decades ago. As such, they are (almost) as protected as our SAC center is in the rocky mountains. (unless you can destroy sub systems or do an inside job... & that's very doubtful.) On the other hand, an attack would lead to worldwide Muslim solidarity... with unpredictable results. Most Islamic states are non-democratic and their leaders would hype & use this as a nationalistic (political) rallying cry to gain even more power. Unpredictable... and hard to see much positive that would result. Easy to see a lot of negatives. I agree with SubbaBub. The majority of Iranians are young, very educated & informed, and totally sick of their government. But they have to do (overthrow) it, themselves. Technology can help, but you need (a bunch of) young revolutionary leaders that are willing to die for it. And that echoes what I said in Q#1.
