Answers.com defines Kabuki theater thusly:
Ka·bu·ki n. A type of popular Japanese drama, evolved from the older No theater, in which elaborately costumed performers....use stylized movements, dances, and songs in order to enact tragedies and comedies.
This description seems to apply rather neatly to the "College, Not Combat" ballot initiative, for which organizers have just submitted 15,000 signatures to officials in hopes that the colorfully emotive, purely symbolic measure will reach San Francisco voters this fall.
If it passes, members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors will be able to consider themselves, uh, encouraged, to, uh, oppose, or ah, speak out, or philosophically disapprove of and generally frown upon military recruiting in high schools - even though recruiting cannot be barred, under the No Child Left Behind Act.
I think the proposed initiative is really a backhanded slap at public schools in San Francisco, among other things. Implicit is the idea that gullible, uninformed high-schoolers, despite all those "media literacy" classes, are going to be sold a bill of goods, and enlist - thinking there's no risk at all of military engagement.
As I've said before: suppose recruiting opponents got their wish? DRAFT time.
Oops.
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at July 12, 2005 08:31 AM
So does this mean that all the women involved in the "College, Not Combat" initiative are really men in drag? I suppose that since it is San Francisco we're talking about I could believe it.
Posted by: Nathan Azinger at July 12, 2005 04:41 PMNice work, Nathan: another San Francisco-is-full-of-cross dressers/fags joke. I don't believe anyone has used that one before. You are truly on the cutting edge of bigoted humor.
As for the ballot measure, I agree it's not needed. Our government has already effectively stalled recruitment efforts by entering into a protracted war without any realistic expectations of how to get out of it. Meanwhile, bin Laden still hasn't been caught, and we've been "looking" for him longer than we were in World War Two (and that's just since 9/11). Pathetic.
Posted by: Cameron Platt at July 13, 2005 01:30 PMProtracted?
Vietnam was protracted. This isn't anywhere near that, historically speaking.
As far as "realistic expectations of how to get out of it," you get out of a war by one of two methods: You win, or you lose. You win by pounding on the enemy until he's dead or says "No mas." Against this enemy, I don't want to even consider losing, and there's no "win/win" to be had with them either.
Simplistic? Maybe. I'm not persuaded that a "nuanced" view will end with us winning.
Posted by: Roy Jacobsen at July 13, 2005 01:42 PMMatt,
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Posted by: DeAna Sallis at July 13, 2005 07:44 PM