Thomas Ricks, the great war correspondent who left the WaPo and now blogs for Foreign Policy, brings to light a disturbing report about political correctness at the Army War College. The school allegedly won't let its students study radical Islam.
Really.
Consider what happened last year to Stephen Coughlin at the Pentagon. Something is very wrong here.
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Political correctness goes both ways. We recently learned that over 50 language specialists have been discharged from the military because of their sexual orientation. This in a time when the Army is struggling to recruit and train enough Arab language specialists. I'll quote you back: "Something is very wrong here."
So "political correctness" no longer means "being too liberal to let people tell the truth",
And why do you assume that we are talking about conservatives here. The upper reaches of the military are just as political and can be just as liberal as any other part of the government, particularly at an academic institution like the War College. Remember that all the top military postings are determined by politicians and all officer promotions are approved by Congress.
Coughlin actually still works for the DoD. He denied any pressure to have him resign. Whole thing sounded more like inter-departmental politics.
Ricks is a bit down on AWC right now for personal reasons. There is actually a lot of study done on Islamic thinking.
Steve
Larry,
And why do you assume that we are talking about conservatives here.
I didn't. I followed the links and noted that the person applying the pressure appears to have been that well-known leftie, Donald Rumsfeld.
(from Rick's own account of the matter)
Year-old one-sided allegations don't exactly prove your point that there is any problem with "political correctness" at the War College. The presenters could have been rude jerks. They could have insisted on attacking Islam as a whole instead of the radical off-shoot fueling the violence. Their "scholarship" could be a lot more sloppy than the one-sided blog posts indicate. And the posts say nothing of what's in the regular curriculum at the War College.
Blog posts often start discussions when the facts aren't fully known. That's part of the fun of the Internet, but this is an example of why you should take blog posts (and especially the comments to blog posts) with a huge grain of salt.
On another note, when conservatives try to enforce what they believe is moral and civil behavior, conservatives call it "morality." When liberals try to enforce what they believe is moral and civil behavior, they call it "political correctness." Conservatives also use the term to mean "liberal idea with which I disagree." So it's not exactly that helpful of a term when you want to have a useful and civil discussion.
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