Quote Originally Posted by Schmedlap View Post
I'm snowed in today, so I'll attempt to revive this dead horse. I think this is an important issue.



As I noted earlier, aside from this being assigned for a targeting class, I'd be curious to know more context - both for why it was assigned and how it was used in the classroom afterward. I do not share the concerns that the chain of command required the students to watch a political speech, so much as I am concerned at the prospect of the current CinC being the subject of study in the classroom. It seems inevitable that this will lead to criticisms of his stances, decisions, approaches (and praise, as well). Perhaps analyzing a political speech of similar purpose from a past President would be better, especially since we have the benefit of hindsight to better understand the decision-making surrounding those speeches.



I'd be curious to hear how the discussion went, to see how well the students avoided getting covered by or slinging it.
It is possible that such a study of the political animal might also result in a better ability to effectively share with one's leaders when they are making ones ultimate mission(defend and protect) much more difficult on the international stage with speechs directed towards targeted populace but viewed externally in a much different light.

There are unfortunately several prominent examples of this in recent history