>From the NY Daily News
Rough sailing in Bushwick
First, let's get one thing straight: The U.S. military is not the enemy. The U.S. military protects us from the enemy, upholds the Constitution, guards our liberties and does a damn fine job of it all. It also does a damn fine job teaching young Americans about values and ethics and discipline - not to mention setting them on the path to higher education and/or a skilled profession. All that appears lost on kids at Bushwick High School and Bushwick Outreach Center. They rallied against a new federal law requiring schools to provide military recruiters with student contact information - and, by the way, allowing parents to opt out. (No one seems upset that schools gladly provide corporate recruiters with the same info. Who has done more for America, the military or Enron?) The protest prompted a letter, printed in the Voice of the People, from Cmdr. Edward Gehrke, chief of the Navy Recruiting District in New York. He wrote:
"The vast majority of students [at the aforementioned schools] are not qualified to enlist in today's Navy. Few ... exceed the minimum qualifying score on our vocational exam, and most have too many drug and/or police issues to even be considered for enlistment."
Though some might argue he could have been a bit more diplomatic, even diplomacy can't hide the stats. Gehrke notes that of 209 students from the two schools who tried to enlist in the Navy since January '99, only four qualified. Four. Not very impressive, is it?
Now, Gehrke is in the middle of a firestorm. The students are angrier than ever, and the usually rational Sen. Chuck Schumer has joined their cause, demanding that Gehrke be reprimanded by the Navy and forced to apologize. For what, speaking the truth? With all due respect, senator, this is not the time to go politically correct.
The city's new Education Department, which was supposed to be a force for good, also has caved in, allowing the kids themselves - not just their parents - to decide whether the contact info will be provided. Throw a tantrum, and DOE surrenders. This doesn't bode well.
We have an educational system that does not educate. We have a society that's producing too many young people with drug and/or police issues. Instead of living in denial, the offended students, and their families and their teachers, should face up to the fact that there's a problem here, and unless the kids - and the schools - straighten out, the future is pretty dismal.
That's the message. Gehrke was only the messenger.
Payback
If the kids at Bushwick High School needed a reminder of what the military is all about, they got it in the remote-control zapping Sunday of six Al Qaeda operatives in Yemen. Surely the students remember that it was Al Qaeda that tore a hole in our city and is the target of the U.S. war against terrorism.
Among the six blasted to bits in their car on the Saudi Arabian peninsula was Abu Ali, a top lieutenant in Osama Bin Laden's evil empire. Good riddance. Ali was a prime suspect in the 2000 bombing of the destroyer Cole that killed 17 American sailors.
The Bush administration won't acknowledge whatever involvement it had in the desert ambush. But Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld summed it up nicely when he said, "It would be a very good thing if [Ali] were out of business."
More of these guys will be out of business now that a new front in the war has been opened. No more just stalking through the rocks of Afghanistan. This fight had truly gone global.
Al Qaeda has started asserting itself in Yemen: A French supertanker was bombed off the coast last month, and an American helicopter was fired upon last week. Now the U.S. is asserting itself there, too. Yemen, Bin Laden's ancestral country, is believed to be the new hideout for his terrorists. They have been put on notice. Six down. More to go. But go they will.
All it took was an unmanned Predator drone and one Hellfire missile to send an unambiguous message: You cannot run. You cannot hide. We will not rest. We will get you.
*** Marc Rodrigues Voicemail: 866.206.9067 x4217 SFS: http://qcsfs.tripod.com