[Air-l] Re: peace

[Robert Hassan]

In response to Steve's experience with students who don't or can't talk
about the war. Could it be, at some level, a way of dealing with guilt,
a sort of horror at what is being done in one's name? I feel it here in
Australia, where lying politicians and propagandistic media can't make
their case effectively, so people either demonstrate or shun it. 
Another reason could be (for some undergraduate students) that they
lack the historical perspective to make sense of what is going on. I
have followed this closely, for months, and still find myself going
through mental gymnastics to make sense of what is a hugely complex
legal, ethical, moral, historical (and strategical) set of issues. On
the other hand, I have taught students who were only vaguely aware of
World War Two; for whom Vietnam meant interesting food and a great place
to travel to; and the Middle East was just a hot region with strangely
noisy people until 9/11 blasted its way into the general
consciousness-to then be manipulated by our leaders.