Lost in America
The National Geographic Society says only 13 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 can find Iraq on a map. Slightly better known -- after a year of making war on it -- is Afghanistan, with fully 17 percent of those surveyed able to pinpoint it on a world map. In contrast, twice that percentage knew that the setting for last season's Survivor series was in the South Pacific, the Marquesas Islands to be exact.
This suggests that the educationist wing of the Bush administration might try an airlift of telegenic, scantily-clad morons for some didactic reality television.
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This reminds me of one of Christopher Hitchens' breakthrough moments, which came during the Gulf War. He was on with Charlton Heston during CNN?s live coverage of the Gulf War. Hitchens, against the war, insisted that Heston list what countries have borders with Iraq. After Heston flubbed the answer, he upbraided the journalist for "taking up valuable network time giving a high-school geography lesson." To which Hitchens replied: "Oh, keep your hairpiece on."