One of the problems with government schooling is the textbooks, particularly the history texts, which tend to become little more than a combination of puff piece and indoctrination manual after the various interests get done fighting over what goes in them. One thing they should avoid, but don’t, are current events.
I just ran across this excerpt from People, Places and Change: An Introduction to World Studies (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2005).
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, terrorism became a major threat to world peace. In 2003, U.S. military forces invaded Iraq. They were sent to prevent Iraq from using chemical and biological weapons. … The United States has protected innocent civilians or helped bring peace to a war-torn region.
A bit premature, don’t you think?