Here is Godfrey’s post:
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So it seems you are saying that informing American students about other people and their cultures will not have a strong impact on our foreign policy. I differ. I have heard hundreds of interviews of the “man in the street” type, voters, even some policy makers, who make statements about our foreign policy that are based on ignorance, more often based on an imbalance i.e. we hear a lot about country X but little about country Y. When X and Y get into a relationship of some sort, people tend to focus on the interests of X b/c they’ve heard of it, may even know a little about it.
That’s just one example. The fact that people who know each other, even intermarry, can fight in no way denies the desireablilty of an informed electorate. Since this is my blog, I will be more forthright (I doubt anyone will read this anyway): if more Americans had been informed about Europe, the Middle East and the history of the region, just minimally, I don’t believe they would have allowed themselves to be scared into supporting the invasion of another country. It was fear and ignorance, pure and simple, that got us into this war which, believe me, we are not going to get out of.