Where The Blog Has No Name

AHA Convention (Chicago, January 5-8)

Historians Against the War will have a literature table (shared with the Radical History Review) from 11:30 to 2:30 on Friday on Level 2 of the Sheraton Chicago (the headquarters hotel).  The table will be in the common area of Level 2, called the LB Promenade.

Also on Friday, a special session on the jobs crisis, chaired by the AHA president and with Jesse Lemisch as one of the speakers, has been called for 1:00 to 2:30 in Chicago Ballroom VI, also in the Sheraton Chicago.

Among other sessions of interest is one on “Cold War Policing and the American Empire,” chaired by Alfred McCoy, 2:30 – 4:30 Friday in Chicago Ballroom A of the Chicago Marriott Downtown.  The on-line program for the convention is at http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/start.html.

Links to Recent Articles of Interest

“Iran and Historical Forgetting”

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/03/iran-and-historical-forgetting

By John Grant, CounterPunch.org, posted January 3

“Debacle: How Two Wars in the Greater Middle East Revealed the Weakness of the Global Superpower”

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175484

By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com, posted January 3

“Will His New Sanctions on Iran Cost Obama the Presidency?”

http://www.juancole.com/2012/01/will-his-new-sanctions-on-iran-cost-obama-the-presidency.html

By Juan Cole, Informed Comment blog, posted January 3

The author teaches history at the University of Michigan

“Iraq: Remembering Those Responsible”

http://www.truth-out.org/iraq-remember-those-responsible/1325433300

By Stephen Zunes, TruthOut.org, posted January 1

“The United States as a Global Power: New World Disorder”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/28/us-global-power-new-world-disorder

Editorial in The Guardian, posted December 29

“Korea and the US Policy of Perpetual War”

http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/harry-targ-korea-and-us-policy-of.html

By Harry Targ, The Rag Blog Digest, posted December 29

“Q&A: Have Human Rights Been Left Behind in Egypt? On Condition of Anonymity, Representatives of Human Rights Organisations Talk about the Current Situation in Egypt”

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/12/20111213115244470203.html

By Mark LeVine, Aljazeers, posted December 29

The author teaches history at the University of California, Irvine

“Prospects for Peace on Earth”

http://warisacrime.org/content/prospects-peace-earth

By David Swanson, War Is a Crime.org, posted December 22

“David Montgomery, Grand Master Workman”

http://www.thenation.com/article/165235/david-montgomery-grand-master-workman?rel=emailNation

By Dana Frank, The Nation, posted December 19

The author teaches history at the University of California, Santa Cruz

“Iraq: No Comfort in Being Right”

http://original.antiwar.com/vlahos/2011/12/12/iraq-no-comfort-in-being-right/

By Kelly B. Vlahos, antiwar.com, posted December 12

Retrospective analysis of the Iraq occupation

Richard Rothstein’s post today on the Educational Policy Institute web site clearly describes how US education policy in recent years (e.g., the No Child Left Behind Act) has destroyed schools as places of learning. There is no doubt NCLB is a failed policy by any standards you want to invoke (see, for example, Larry Stedman’s comprehensive assessment of NCLB in the open-access journal Critical Education or Rothstein’s American Prospect article from 2007).

What has NCLB wrought? At the very least, Rothstein notes:

• conversion of struggling elementary schools into test-prep factories;
• narrowing of curriculum so that disadvantaged children who most need enrichment would be denied lessons in social studies, the sciences, the arts and music, even recess and exercise, so that every available minute of the school day could be devoted to drill for tests of basic skills in math and reading;
• demoralization of the best teachers, now prohibited from engaging children in discovery and instead required to follow pre-set instructional scripts aligned with low-quality tests;
• and the boredom and terror of young children who no longer looked forward to school but instead anticipated another day of rote exercises and practice testing designed to increase scores by a point or two.

But, NCLB’s failure is not Rothstein’s point today. Rather, his point is how Obama and his education secretary Arne Duncan have responded to this massive failure of policy making … by prescribing more of the same.

NCLB’s absurd demand, which “prohibit(s) the normal variability of human ability so that all children, from the unusually gifted to the mentally retarded, must achieve above the same ‘challenging’ level of proficiency by 2014,” can now be waived by the education secretary. But if states are unable to meet NCLB requirements (and none of them can), Obama and Duncan are “conditioning the waivers on states’ agreements to adopt accountability conditions that are even more absurd, more unworkable, more fanciful than those in the law itself.”

States will be excused from making all children proficient by 2014 if they agree instead to make all children “college-ready” by 2020. If NCLB’s testing obsession didn’t suffice to distinguish good schools from failing ones, states can be excused from loss of funds if they instead use student test scores to distinguish good teachers from bad ones. Without any reauthorization of NCLB, Mr. Duncan will now use his waiver authority to demand, in effect, even more test-prep, more drill, more unbalanced curricula, more misidentification of success and failure, more demoralization of good teachers, and more needless stress for young children.

Rothstein believes the Obama administration’s new policies, like NCLB itself,  ”will eventually implode.”

But the damage being done to American public education has now gone on for so long that it will have enduring effects. Schools will not soon be able to implement a holistic education to disadvantaged children. Disillusioned and demoralized teachers who have abandoned the profession or have retired are now being rapidly replaced by a new generation of drill sergeants, well-trained in the techniques of “data-driven instruction.” This cannot easily be undone.

Politicians, the ruling class, and the mainstream media are impervious to the mountains of evidence illustrating how NCLB stripped the heart and soul of learning and teaching in US schools and failed in any measure to “increase achievement” (see Stedman’s work).

But is NCLB really a policy failure? Perhaps not. Like the trail of death, destruction, and terror left in the wake of  America’s imperialist wars, educational destruction created by NCLB is just so much collateral damage in an education agenda that is war agenda.

Recent Articles of Interest from HAW

“How to Save a Quarter of a Trillion Dollars”
By Lawrence S. Wittner, Huffington Post, posted August 8
The author is a professor of history emeritus at SUNY Albany

“On the Sixty-Sixth Anniversary of the Bombing of Hiroshima”
By Gar Alperovitz, CommonDreams.org, posted August 6

“Peddling Foolishness in Afghanistan”
By Conn Hallinan, CounterPunch.org, posted August 5
On geography, history, and the Pakistan-Afghanistan border

“Say It Ain’t So, O!”
By Stanley Kutler, TruthDig.com, posted August 4
The author is a professor of history emeritus at the University of Wisconsin

“War, Guilt and ‘Thank You for Your Service’”
By Elizabeth Samet, Bloomberg News, posted August 2

“Ballpark Liturgy: America’s New Civic Religion”
By Andrew J. Bacevich, TomDispatch.com, posted July 28
The author teaches history and international relations at Boston University

“Anders Breivik, Steig Larsson, and the Men with the Nazi Tattoos”
By James Ridgeway, Mother Jones, posted July 26

“NATO in Libya Has Failed to Learn Costly Lessons of Afghanistan”
By Patrick Cockburn, The Independent, posted July 23

“Puppets in Revolt: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and the United States”
By James Petras, Information Clearing House, posted July 23

“Checkmate in the Great Game”
By Nicholas J. S. Davies, Z Magazine, July-August issue

“War? Bloodlust? What’s a Scholar to Do?”
By William Loren Katz, CommonDreams.org, posted June 8

“With Ollanta Humala’s Win, Peru Joins Latin America’s Left Turn”
By Greg Grandin, The Nation blog, posted June 7
The author teaches Latin American history at New York University

“Netanyahu’s Speech and Congressional Democrats’ Embrace of Extremism”
By Stephen Zunes, Truthout.com, posted June 3

“Our New Iraq-Afghanistan War National Holiday”
By David Swanson, War Is a Crime.org, posted May 29

“How America Screws Its Soldiers”
By Andrew J. Bacevich, The Daily Beast, posted May 28
The author teaches history and international relations at Boston University.

“Netanyahu’s Border War”
By Shlomo Ben Ami, Truthout.org, posted May 28
The author is a history PhD and a former Israeli foreign minister.

“Parallel States: A New Vision for Peace”
By Mark LeVine and Mathias Mossberg, Aljazeera, posted May 28
Mark LeVine teaches history at the University of California, Irvine.

“Washington’s Weapon of Choice”
By Sherry Wolff, SocialistWorker.org, posted May 24

“Deception and Diplomacy: The US, Japan, and Okinawa”
By Gavan McCormack, Asia-Pacific Journal, posted May 23
Makes extensive use of documents released by Wikileaks

“Headlines from the Dustbin of History (Afghan Dept.)”
By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com, posted May 19

“The Secret Sharer: Is Thomas Drake an Enemy of the State?”
By Jane Mayer, The New Yorker, posted May 15
On the Obama administration’s attack on whistleblowers

“The Bin Laden Killing and American Exceptionalism”
By Michael H. Hunt, History News Network, posted May 13
The author is a professor of history emeritus at the University of North Carolina

“The Crash and Burn of Old Regimes: Washington Court Culture and Its Endless Wars”
By William J. Astore, TomDispatch.com, posted May 12
The author, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, teaches history at the Pennsylvania College of Technology

“Torture Is Never Legal and Didn’t Lead Us to Bin Laden”
By Marjorie Cohn, Portside.org, posted May 11

“Noam Chomsky: My Reaction to Osama bin Laden’s Death”
By Noam Chomsky, CommonDreams.org, posted May 11 (from Guernica magazine)

“The Double Game: The Unintended Consequences of American Funding in Pakistan”
By Lawrence Wright, The New Yorker, posted May 7

“Why I Don’t Feel Much about Osama’s Death”
By Gary Leupp, CounterPunch.org, posted May 5
The author teaches history at Tufts University

“Where Have All the Graveyards Gone? The War That Didn’t End War and Its Unending Successors”
By Adam Hochschild, TomDispatch.com, posted May 3

“The Libyan War, American Power and the Decline of the Petrodollar System”
By Peter Dale Scott, Asia-Pacific Journal, posted May 2

Links to Recent Articles of Interest

“Japan, the Atomic Bomb, and the ‘Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Power’”
By Yuki Tanaka and Peter Kuznick, Asia-Pacific Journal, May 2 issue
Peter Kuznick teaches history at American University

“An Arab Spring for Women: The Missing Story from the Middle East”
By Juan Cole and Shahin Cole, TomDispatch.com, posted April 26
Juan Cole teaches history at the University of Michigan

“Did Obama’s Election Kill the Antiwar Movement?”
By University of Michigan News Service, CounterPunch.org, posted April 25

“Small Islets, Enduring conflict: Dokdo, Korea-Japan Colonial Legacy and the United States”
By Mark Selden, Asia-Pacific Journal, April 25 issue

“Washington on the Rocks: An Empire of Autocrats, Aristocrats, and Uniformed Thugs Begins to Totter”
By Alfred McCoy and Brett Reilly, TomDispatch.com, posted April 24
Alfred McCoy teaches history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Brett Reilly is a history graduate student there

“Is the World Too Big to Fail? The Contours of World Order”
By Noam Chomsky, TomDispatch.com, posted April 21

“Sleepwalking into the Imperial Dark: What It Feels Like When a Superpower Runs Off the Tracks”
By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com, posted April 19

“Review of Tim Bird and Alex Marshall’s Afghanistan: How the West Lost Its Way”
By Jeremy Kuzmarov, History News Network, posted April 18
The author teaches history at the University of Tulsa

“Don’t Betray Us, Barack – End the Empire”
By Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick, New Statesman, posted April 14
On lessons from Kennedy and Gorbachev; Peter Kuznick teaches history at American University

WikiLeaks on Guantánamo

“The Guantánamo Files” (the documents)

“What Are the Guantánamo Files? Understanding the Prisoner Dossiers”
By David Leigh, The Guardian, posted April 25

“WikiLeaks: The Uses of Guantánamo”
By Amy Davidson, The New Yorker blog, posted April 25

“WikiLeaks: Just Eight at Guantánamo Gave Evidence Against 255 Others”
By Tom Lasseter and Carol Rosenberg, Truthout.com, posted April 26

“The Hidden Horrors of WikiLeaks’ Guantánamo Files”
By Andy Worthington, CommonDreams.org, posted April 28

“Not Why But How: To the Shores of (and the Skies above) Tripoli”
By Andrew J. Bacevich, Tom Dispatch.com, posted April 12
The author teaches history and international relations at Boston University

“The Success of Revolutions That Do Not Succeed”
By Vijay Prashad, CounterPunch.org, posted April 8
The author teaches history at Trinity College

“Morocco: Can Dinosaurs Become Butterflies?”
By Stuart Schaar, The Indypendent, posted April 6
The author is a professor emeritus of Middle East and North African history at Brooklyn College

“The Censored War and You”
By Kelley B. Vlahos, antiwar.com, posted April 5
Compares coverage of the Vietnam and Afghanistan wars

“100 Years of Bombing Libya: The Forgotten Fascist Roots of Humanitarian Interventionism”
By Mark Almond, CounterPunch.org, posted April 5

“Japan, Europe and the Dangerous Fantasy of American Leadership”
By Karel van Wolferen, Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, posted April 4

“Last Act in the Middle East”
By Andrew J. Bacevich, Newsweek, posted April 3

“A Matter of Empire”
By Arno J. Mayer, CounterPunch, posted April 1
The author is an emeritus professor of history at Princeton University

“Response to Juan Cole on Libya”
By Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies, posted April 1

“The Dangerous US Game in Yemen”
By Jeremy Scahill, The Nation, posted March 30
Has much historical background

Here are a couple of notes plus our latest set of links to recent on-line articles of interest.

1. Groups or individuals on more than 100 campuses have arranged for local participation in the “Fight Back USA” national teach-in being organized for April 5, to be hosted by Frances Fox Piven and Cornel West and live-streamed. Information is at http://fightbackteachin.org

2. The HAW Steering Committee has voted to co-sponsor a “Ground the Drones, End the Wars” march and rally on Friday, April 22 at Hancock Air National Guard Base in Mattydale, NY (outside Syracuse). Information is at http://upstatedroneaction.peaceworksrochester.org/flyers/Ground_the_Drones.pdf

Links to Recent Articles of Interest

“A Debate on U.S. Military Intervention in Libya: Juan Cole vs. Vijay Prashad”
On Democracy Now, posted March 29

“The Unfolding Crisis in Libya”
By Gary Leupp, CounterPunch.org, posted March 28
The author teaches history at Tufts University

“The West’s ‘Double Standards’ in Middle East”
By Mark LeVine, English.Aljazeera.net, posted March 28
The author teaches history at the University of California, Irvine

“An Open Letter to the Left on Libya”
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment blog, posted March 27
The author teaches Middle East history at the University of Michigan

“American Thought Police”
By Paul Krugman, New York Times, posted March 27
On the Wisconsin Republican Party’s attack on historian William Cronon

“Libya Remembers, We Forget: These Bombs Are Not the First”
By Mark Mazower, The Guardian, posted March 25

“Social Science and the Libyan Adventure”
By Stephen M. Walt, ForeignPolicy.com blog, posted March 24

“Why Nothing Good Will Come of This Intervening in Libya”
By Vijay Prashad, CounterPunch.org, posted March 23
The author teaches history at Trinity College

“The ‘Kill Team’ Photographs”
By Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker blog, posted March 22

“Libya in the Balance”
By Nicholas Pelham, Middle East Research and Information Project, posted March 15
Has much historical background on the Gaddafi regime

Additional note from EWR:
More on “The Kill Team” at Rolling Stone: How U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan murdered innocent civilians and mutilated their corpses – and how their officers failed to stop them. Plus: An exclusive look at the war crime photos censored by the Pentagon

Recent articles recommended by Historians Against the War:

“Revealed: US Spy Operation That Manipulates Social Media”
By Nick Fielding and Ian Cobain, The Guardian, posted March 17
On a Pentagon contract for the creation of false on-line identities, known as “sock puppets”

“Korean War Coverage Was Distorted and Suppressed”
By Sherwood Ross, OpEdNews, posted March 17
Based on interviews with Korean War historian Bruce Cumings of the University of Chicago

“How the Japanese Learned about ‘Nuclear Safety’”
By Lawrence S. Wittner, History News Network, posted March 17
On the 1954 “Lucky Dragon” nuclear incident; the author is an emeritus professor of history at SUNY Albany

“Smoking Out Vietnam War Truths”
By Nick Turse, Asia Times Online, posted March 12

“The Mythic Lure of the ‘No-Fly Zone’”
By Ira Chernus, History News Network, posted March 14

“Fissures in the Arab Revolt”
By Vijay Prashad, CounterPunch.org, posted March 11
Historical background on Libya and especially Bahrain; the author teaches South Asian history at Trinity College

“The Shameful Abuse of Bradley Manning”
By Daniel Ellsberg, The Guardian, posted March 11

The Arab Spring”
By Rashid Khalidi, The Nation, March 21 issue, posted March 6
The author teaches the history of the modern Middle East at Columbia University

“The Long History of Labor Bashing”
By Nelson Lichtenstein, The Chronicle Review, posted March 6
The author teaches history at the University of California Santa Barbara

“The Middle East Revolutions in Historical Perspective: Egypt, Occupied Palestine, and the United States”
By Herbert P. Bix, Asia-Pacific Journal, February 21
The author is a former Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who now teaches at Binghamton University

Dear Friends,

For those who must go teach on Monday and seek to make sense of current conditions with students, for those who simply want to walk out into the world, armed with some ideas that might make it better, this special dispatch, and the one just before it, should be of considerable help. http://www.richgibson.com/blog/

Now, we can say again: The education agenda is a war agenda. It is a class war and empire’s war agenda.