Friday, February 4, 2011

U.S. military as hotbed of radical education?

"The Tillman Story," a documentary about the cover-up of the friendly-fire killing of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan in 2004 notes in passing that he read Noam Chomsky, as have dozens of the soldiers and veterans I've interviewed over the past 5 years.  Noam Chomsky -- hardly an easy read, but nonetheless passed around the barracks and discussed -- may well be more formative in the army than on college campuses these days.  I can only begin to imagine what difference that could make for the future of our country.  (I write this as the Egyptian army (who, in contrast to our professional military, are mostly conscripts drawn from a cross-section of the country's classes & political allegiances) has so far refrained from repressing the popular anti-government uprising.)

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