Current Events > Did you ever talk about the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan in school?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I was in 3rd grade when the US went into Afghanistan, and 4th grade when we went into Iraq. We remained in those countries all the way past my high school graduation. I live in the US.

Throughout that entire time, I can say with 100% certainty that not ONCE were either wars discussed by any teacher in any way. The only person who ever brought it up was my 6th grade science teacher and it was just to mention that her daughter was getting deployed and that she was really upset and worried about it.

It's crazy, the nation was at war and it was like nobody was allowed to talk about it in front of the children. It was far too political I am sure. Parents on the other side would have been outraged to hear a teacher give their opinion on it, whatever it happened to be.

I was wondering if anyone had any experiences with this, also post what country you are from.
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i never learned any history past ww2 in school
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Romulox28 posted...

i never learned any history past ww2 in school

We stopped just after 1980 I think, but still it could have come up in a class discussion about something, or a teacher just deciding to share news or opinions with the class.
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i already graduated high school before that.
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I was in grade 10 when 9/11 happened so there really wasn't much time for discussion to happen amongst my high school teachers.

I did two year of university, dropped out to go to Afghanistan, then came back to finish my degree in sociology (I'm Canadian, not American, btw). In one of my classes after I got back, I made it a point to do a class presentation on it. I can't remember what I said, or how it tied into the course material, but I felt it necessary.

The prof gave me an A on the project. I think I only deserved a B, but got the A due to actually having been there and some weird sort of pity from her I think. Heh.
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Eat More Beef posted...

The prof gave me an A on the project. I think I only deserved a B, but got the A due to actually having been there and some weird sort of pity from her I think. Heh.

That was her way of thanking you for your service ;)

What did you do while you were deployed?
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when I was in college, I had a government professor bragging about how because he could recognize the signs of a brewing war years before it happened, he was able to make a lot of money

besides that, nah.
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we talked about the first gulf war and sometime around '98 when Clinton bombed Iraq we talked about that. I graduated HS the summer before 9/11 and none of my college classes touched on them outside the occasional rant by a prof.
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I was in 6th grade when 9/11 happened. they talked about afghanistan a lot that year for sure. one time the teacher asked if I knew what kind of gun osama bin laden was using in those videos they kept showing him in, cause they presumed I was muslim and therefore I would know (their logic, not mine)
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ah, i remember i was taught that in the 90's iraq-iran war that "iraq bad, iran not so bad, kuwait sad".
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I was in 3rd grade when the first gulf war happened. I don't remember my teacher talking about it. but I remember talking about with classmates

Nope, but I do remember a kid crying about it. He was from one of those countries and some other kids decided to bully him about it.
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snesmaster40 posted...

Nope, but I do remember a kid crying about it. He was from one of those countries and some other kids decided to bully him about it.

Wow that's messed up. Damn bullies.
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Sativa_Rose posted...

Eat More Beef posted...

The prof gave me an A on the project. I think I only deserved a B, but got the A due to actually having been there and some weird sort of pity from her I think. Heh.

That was her way of thanking you for your service ;)

What did you do while you were deployed?

See, I thought was a bullshit war and don't like being thanked just because I served. People do things everyday that require courage and they dont get the same acknowledgements as I did. I served because it was a good job opportunity during my high school/university years (I was in the reserves). Anyway, i digress.

I was there for nine months. 2 months was done as a radio operator in the tactical operations center, I spent 5 months humping a radio with 1ppcli on various patrols and building forward operating bases, and a final 2 month providing computer assistance to those at the Kandahar base.

I built my presentation around the Afghan culture and how they live life different than us.
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Canada.

If a teacher did talk about it (Which was rare) it was just to shit talk the US, or more specifically the govt.
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Eat More Beef posted...

Sativa_Rose posted...

Eat More Beef posted...

The prof gave me an A on the project. I think I only deserved a B, but got the A due to actually having been there and some weird sort of pity from her I think. Heh.

That was her way of thanking you for your service ;)

What did you do while you were deployed?

See, I thought was a bullshit war and don't like being thanked just because I served. People do things everyday that require courage and they dont get the same acknowledgements as I did. I served because it was a good job opportunity during my high school/university years (I was in the reserves). Anyway, i digress.

I was there for nine months. 2 months was done as a radio operator in the tactical operations center, I spent 5 months humping a radio with 1ppcli on various patrols and building forward operating bases, and a final 2 month providing computer assistance to those at the Kandahar base.

I built my presentation around the Afghan culture and how they live life different than us.

You ever go to FOB Frontenac? That's where my battalion operated from, and I spent a decent amount of time at KAF, too. In fact, we relieved a Canadian unit at Frontenac in '09.
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It was literally just starting in my mid-highschool years.
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One of the economics teachers in high school kept the death count of American soldiers on the white board and updated it whenever more soldiers died. I remember kids would try to debate him about the merits of the war and he's shut them down instantly lol. That's really the only attention that was ever paid it in my my school experience.
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I was a freshman at a Texas high school, so almost all of my teachers were super gung-ho about us invading Iraq and Afghanistan. Wasn't much context other than 9/11 and thinly veiled Islamaphobia/racism. One teacher, not one of mine though, was suspended because he kept saying "ay-rabs" and that he hoped the countries were destroyed. We had to have a school-wide assembly where various military people reiterated that the war isn't against the citizens of Iraq or Afghanistan, Muslims, Arabs, or anyone but vicious regimes who are a threat to world peace.
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Millennials posted...

I was a freshman at a Texas high school, so almost all of my teachers were super gung-ho about us invading Iraq and Afghanistan. Wasn't much context other than 9/11 and thinly veiled Islamaphobia/racism. One teacher, not one of mine though, was suspended because he kept saying "ay-rabs" and that he hoped the countries were destroyed. We had to have a school-wide assembly where various military people reiterated that the war isn't against the citizens of Iraq or Afghanistan, Muslims, Arabs, or anyone but vicious regimes who are a threat to world peace.

oh yeah this made me remember one teacher that was saying that whole area should be glassed when talking to another teacher. can't believe I forgot about that
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Millennials posted...

I was a freshman at a Texas high school, so almost all of my teachers were super gung-ho about us invading Iraq and Afghanistan. Wasn't much context other than 9/11 and thinly veiled Islamaphobia/racism. One teacher, not one of mine though, was suspended because he kept saying "ay-rabs" and that he hoped the countries were destroyed. We had to have a school-wide assembly where various military people reiterated that the war isn't against the citizens of Iraq or Afghanistan, Muslims, Arabs, or anyone but vicious regimes who are a threat to world peace.

I lived in Virginia at the time and it was much the same thing.

I hated that school so much.
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All of those idiots who mistreated Middle Easterners and whatnot after 9/11 helped contribute to the radicalization of homegrown terrorists. ISIS, al Qaeda, etc. all use those kinds of incidents as propaganda and recruiting tools.
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Nope, I was already taking Honors and AP classes at that point. They don't fuck around in those, there was absolutely no deviating from the set lesson plan. There were some current event/gov classes that talked about it, but those were easy A classes for the lazy or stupid kids.

There was one teacher who went on a rant about it once, and said something like "all those guys(our soldiers) over there are murders and should be executed as war criminals". A friend of mine, whose brother was serving, punched him in the face. It was a fucking calculus class.
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On the day after Osama Bin Ladin was killed, my teacher brought it up in class and everyone clapped
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omega cookie posted...

There was one teacher who went on a rant about it once, and said something like "all those guys(our soldiers) over there are murders and should be executed as war criminals". A friend of mine, whose brother was serving, punched him in the face. It was a fucking calculus class.

Wow well I hope the kid who punched him didn't get in trouble, you have to be a complete fucking idiot to think that the soldiers who were ordered over there by politicians had any say in the matter.

Politicians declare wars and then the military gets ordered to fight them.
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GOATSLAYER posted...

everyone clapped

We always clap when class is over.
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Eat More Beef posted...

Sativa_Rose posted...

Eat More Beef posted...

The prof gave me an A on the project. I think I only deserved a B, but got the A due to actually having been there and some weird sort of pity from her I think. Heh.

That was her way of thanking you for your service ;)

What did you do while you were deployed?

See, I thought was a bullshit war and don't like being thanked just because I served. People do things everyday that require courage and they dont get the same acknowledgements as I did. I served because it was a good job opportunity during my high school/university years (I was in the reserves). Anyway, i digress.

I was there for nine months. 2 months was done as a radio operator in the tactical operations center, I spent 5 months humping a radio with 1ppcli on various patrols and building forward operating bases, and a final 2 month providing computer assistance to those at the Kandahar base.

I built my presentation around the Afghan culture and how they live life different than us.

That makes sense. It's true that a lot of other people don't get thanked much like EMTs and whatnot. It's unfortunate. But still, it's good that you honorably fulfilled your duty and didn't skip out like some people try to and stuff.
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Sativa_Rose posted...

omega cookie posted...

There was one teacher who went on a rant about it once, and said something like "all those guys(our soldiers) over there are murders and should be executed as war criminals". A friend of mine, whose brother was serving, punched him in the face. It was a fucking calculus class.

Wow well I hope the kid who punched him didn't get in trouble, you have to be a complete fucking idiot to think that the soldiers who were ordered over there by politicians had any say in the matter.

Politicians declare wars and then the military gets ordered to fight them.

Nope, not only was the kid a model student(I think this was the only time he ever did anything bad), but his brother had gone there and was absolutely beloved. The teacher got forced to take a leaver of absence for the rest of the semester, until our class was gone.
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omega cookie posted...

Sativa_Rose posted...

omega cookie posted...

There was one teacher who went on a rant about it once, and said something like "all those guys(our soldiers) over there are murders and should be executed as war criminals". A friend of mine, whose brother was serving, punched him in the face. It was a fucking calculus class.

Wow well I hope the kid who punched him didn't get in trouble, you have to be a complete fucking idiot to think that the soldiers who were ordered over there by politicians had any say in the matter.

Politicians declare wars and then the military gets ordered to fight them.

Nope, not only was the kid a model student(I think this was the only time he ever did anything bad), but his brother had gone there and was absolutely beloved. The teacher got forced to take a leaver of absence for the rest of the semester, until our class was gone.

Good. Lol.
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@Bodybuilder36

Nah. I helped build FOB Martello back in 06. It's a couple hundred kilometers North of Kanadahar and overlooked the tiny ads village of Elbak.

I spent some time in Panjuai province and as at FOB Wilson which was used as a staging point for a big operation.

What area was your FOB in?
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