spent this past month studying Cuba with Spanish 102 students, with news of Camp X-Ray all around. ... not a single student wondered why or how it is that the USA has a military base in Cuba, or where it was located on the island.

;(



HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS DEMAND WARS IN EASIER-TO-FIND COUNTRIES
"How Come No One Fights in Big Famous Nations Anymore?"

They Ask Washington, D.C. (SatireWire.com)  A delegation of American high
school students today demanded the United States stop waging war in obscure
nations such as Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and instead
attack places they've actually heard of, such as France, Australia, and
Austria, unless, they said, those last two are the same country.

"Shouldn't we, as Americans, get to decide where wars are?" asked sophomore
Kate Shermansky.
"People claim we don't know as much geography as our parents and
grandparents, but it's so not our fault," Josh Beldoni, a senior at Fischer
High School in Los Angeles, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Back
then they only had wars in, like, Germany and England, but we're supposed
to know about places like Somalia and Massachusetts."

"Macedonia," corrected committee Chairman Carl Levin of Michigan.

"See?" said Beldoni. Beldoni's frustration was shared by nearly three dozen
students at the hearing, who blamed the U.S. military for making them look
bad.

"I totally support our soldiers and all that, but I am seriously failing
both geography and social studies because I keep getting asked to find
Croatia or Yemvrekia, or whatever bizarre-o country we send troops to,"
said Amelia Nash, a junior at Clark High School in Orlando, Fla. "Can't we
fight in, like, Italy? It's boot-shaped."

Chairman Levin however, explained that Italy was a U.S. ally, and that
intervention is usually in response to a specific threat.

"OK, what about Arulco?" interrupted Tyler Boone, a senior at Bellevue High
School in Wisconsin. "That's a country in Jagged Alliance 2 run by the evil
Queen Deidranna. I'm totally familiar with that place. She's a major threat."

"Jagged...?" said Levin.

  "Alliance. It's a computer game."

"Well, no," Levin answered. "We can't attack a fictional country."

"Yeah right," Boone mumbled. "Like Grenada was real."

The students' testimony was supported by a cross-section of high school
geography teachers, who urged the committee to help lay a solid foundation
for America's young people by curtailing any intervention abroad.

"Since the anti-terror war began, most of my students can now point to
Afghanistan on a map, which is fine, but those same kids still don't know
the capitals of Nevada and Ohio," said Richard Gerber, who teaches at
Rhymony High School in Atlanta. "I think we need to cut back on our
activities overseas and take care of business at home, and if that means
invading Tallahassee (Fla.) or Trenton (N.J.) so that students learn where
they are, so be it."

"I've always wanted to stick it to Hartford (Conn.)," said Sen. Lincoln
Chafee of Rhode Island. "Oh shit, is my microphone on?"

The hearing adjourned after six hours. An estimated 2,000 more students
were expected to hold a march in the nation's capital, but forgot which
city it was in.