Teachers who belong to the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union and oppose the U.S.-led war on Iraq are conducting anti-war workshops for primary, middle and high school students. Voices of alarm and worry from parents are being heard. There is no harm in giving lessons on current affairs of international concern. But what matters is the content of the education.
The purpose of education is not imbuing an ideology; education should help students develop a balanced way of thinking, with which they will make sound judgements. Regarding the war on Iraq, it has been reported that the teachers tell students that war should be opposed because it destroys peace. They do not teach students why a war broke out. They do not give a balanced explanation on the views of both sides.
Teaching material provided by the Unification Committee of the teachers union says: The current Iraq war is one-sided massacre without cause at the minimum level. It further says: The blood Iraqis bleed today heralds the death of Korean people tomorrow. This war is a prelude to a worldwide war and perhaps a step toward a war on the Korean Peninsula. Moreover, it denounces those who score less than 80 points on a questionnaire based on the material, as a person looking like a Korean outwardly, but in practice more likely to be an American. This means that they do not hesitate to bully students who do not share their ideology. This is hardly an education. This is an act of ideological indoctrination with the intention of making students slaves of certain political thought.
The material also carries wretched photos of children victimized during the Gulf war and an article on the Nogun-ri massacre during the Korean War. It is intended to deepen the anti-American sentiment expanding among Koreans since the death of two school-girls. If they are devoted to education, teachers should stop spouting their political ideology. Instead, they should endeavor to help students open their eyes to wider horizons so that they can make the right decision. Education authorities should stop being overpowered by the teachers union, they must supervise teachers and guide them to teach students in the correct way. http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200303/28/200303280033268239900090109011.html
AL KIFL, Iraq, March 30 — An Iraqi vice president said late Saturday that Iraq would launch more suicide attacks against U.S. forces as part of its strategy, after a suicide bomber in a taxi killed four American soldiers at a checkpoint in south-central Iraq. In response, the head of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said Sunday that coalition forces can alter their tactics to cope with the threat.
“WE WILL USE any means to kill our enemy in our land and we will follow the enemy into its land,” Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said at a Baghdad news conference. “This is just the beginning. You’ll hear more pleasant news later.”
He added that thousands of Arab volunteers, including from Saudi Arabia, were arriving in Iraq to help fight the U.S.-led coalition.
The victims were part of the Army’s 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division. Their names were not released pending notification of relatives.
The attack occurred at a U.S.-manned checkpoint at the town of Al Kifl on Highway 9, north of Najaf. Initial reports said several suicide bombers were involved but that was later changed to a single attacker.
A taxi stopped close to the checkpoint, and the driver waved for help. Soldiers approached the car, and it then exploded.
Iraqi television said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had awarded the man, identified by the TV report as Ali Hammadi al-Namani, with two posthumous medals. Ramadan described the bomber as a noncommissioned army officer.
Asked whether suicide bombings will now become a policy of the Iraqi military, Ramadan said: “It will be routine military policy.”
CHANGE IN TACTICS On Sunday, Gen. Richard Myers, the head of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said that U.S. and British forces could alter their tactics to deal with the threat of more such attacks.
“I think we can adjust our tactics and techniques to overcome that threat,” Myers told the British Broadcasting Corp. “It’s just a reminder there’s some very desperate people out there and we’ve go to be on our toes.”
At the U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar, Maj. Gen. Victor Renuart, the director of operations, described Saturday’s attack as “a symbol of an organization that’s starting to get a little bit desperate.”
The incident prompted an immediate change in procedures at such checkpoints, NBC News’ Dana Lewis reported from Al Kifl where he is traveling with the U.S. forces. Soldiers manning armor at the checkpoints are to fire one warning shot over cars that refuse to stop, and if the vehicles do not stop, they are to fire on it, Lewis reported.
Lewis added that fighting in and around Al Kifl has been “going on and on,” with one Iraqi mortar shell landing just 50 feet from where he was. Numerous vehicles that refused to stop as they crossed U.S.-held bridges have been shot at in recent days, he said.
Huge weapons caches were also found in the area, Lewis said, and 101st Army Airborne troops would soon be going house to house to search for Iraqi fighters. Town becomes horrific battleground
SUICIDE STRATEGY The suicide bombing was the first against U.S. and British forces since the invasion of Iraq began.
There had been warnings of suicide attacks in the country. Iraqi dissidents and Arab media have claimed that Saddam has opened a training camp for Arab volunteers willing to carry out suicide bombings against U.S. forces in Iraq.
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden also urged Iraqis last month in an audiotape aired on Arabic television to employ the tactic against U.S. forces. Other Arab militants also spoke about suicide missions against the invading armies.
Terrorism expert Walid Phares says the bombers were inspired by calls from clerics. Such suicide attacks are regularly used by Palestinian militants in targeting the better-equipped Israeli army.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri was asked in a mid-March television interview whether Iraq would use the tactic of suicide attacks against the invading forces.
“We have prepared ourselves for all kinds of war,” Sabri said. “For many months, tens of thousands have volunteered to serve as martyrdom-seekers (suicide attackers) in the battle with the American enemy. We trained them and readied them. We have prepared ourselves for street fighting and desert fighting.”
The biggest suicide bombing against the U.S. military abroad was in Lebanon when a truck packed with explosives drove into the U.S. Marine base at Beirut International Airport and exploded in the early morning of Oct. 23, 1983, as the troops slept. The attack killed 241 U.S. servicemen and leveled the base. Simultaneously, a Beirut base for French soldiers was attacked by another suicide bomber, killing 58 paratroopers.
The U.S. troops and the French were in Lebanon as part of an ill-fated peacekeeping mission to end Lebanon’s civil war. Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim militants were blamed for the attacks.
In 1996, a truck bomb at the U.S. Khobar Towers barracks in Saudi Arabia killed 19 U.S. servicemen.
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