Students skip school to see Iraq speech

[NYVet]

http://kstp.com/article/stories/S389680.shtml?cat=1





A veteran's bus tour featuring decorated veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is stopping in the Twin Cities today.

But controversy at Forest Lake High School forced the tour to make a change in plans.

Capt. Pete Hegeseth founded the group Vets for Freedom. He is an Iraq War vet and a Forest Lake High School graduate. He received word yesterday that the school did not want the bus rolling through, calling the talk too political for a public school.


<snip>


Dozens of students at Forest Lake High School were so upset that they skipped school to go see the speech.

"My brother's in the armed forces...it's a slap in the face for people with family members in the armed forces," said student Elijah Miller.


<snip>


"I was out there for three days outside the neighborhood outside the green zone and I didn't hear a single shot fired or a single explosion," Heggeseth told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS. "Markets were open, the Iraqi Army was out on the street corner--that's not political, that's what I saw first hand," Hegeseth told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS.

School officials repeatedly denied our requests for comment on the situation.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Isn't that a vet group that supports the war?

[NYVet]

6. They are a group that agree that the war was right

and that anytime you free over 25 million people from repressive governments it is a VERY good thing.

[noamnety]

7. a bunch of nationalistic idiots

who equate illegal invasions with "freeing" people (against their will).

[noamnety]

8. Well, that's been proven false.

anytime you free over 25 million people from repressive governments it is a VERY good thing."

It's only a good thing if you replace it with something better, not if you replace it with ethnic cleansing, people living without basic sanitation, rampant diseases with no access to health care, and the creation of hundreds of thousands of refugees and corpses.

[CBGLuthier]

2. SO if I get the jist here

Veterans are better people than the rest of us and everytime they go around making speeches attendance should be madatory otherwise it is just a "slap in the face" to everyone who ever served?

And some would still argue we have not teetered into fascism.

I hope they expel those students who left and tell them to just go ahead and join up because america needs fresh meat.

[NYVet]

5. I posted it as a counterpost to the stories I see about kids who skip school

to support illegal aliens, to protest WTO, or the other cause of the day.

During WW2, it was common to have combat veterans travel around the country and tell their stories at school.

[noamnety]

9. The school shouldn't expel the kids.

As a teacher I support the right of any student to walk out for a political event, even if I don't agree with it.

The school did the right thing by canceling their visit though - they sound like a pathetic right wing PR parade. An Iraq veteran claiming he was outside the green zone for three (whole!!!111) days without a shot being fired would raise some obvious questions for people with a clue, like "Were you only outside the green zone for only three days in your entire tour, and why?" (and a whole bunch of other ones) but high school kids are young enough and gullible enough that they're going to get the false impression from that kind of BS that being in Baghdad is just like being here.

This is like McCain talking about how grand and safe and normal the market place was when he was there (in his bullet proof vest, with heavily armed guards, the day before 21 Iraqis there were abducted and murdered, oops, did he forget to mention that?).

[icnorth]

3. "I was out there...

outside the neighborhood outside the green zone and I didn't hear a single shot fired or a single explosion,"... Guess that must have been the time when all the racket was taking place inside the Green Zone eh Pete? No? Oh, that was the time you took Senator McCain on a walk about through the fruit and vegetable stands you say. Sorry about that :sarcasm: off

[fed-up]

4. he's deaf?? nt