US expert panel decries America's "ignorance of outside world"

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2003

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A panel of prominent US politicians and educators has decried what it called "America's ignorance of outside world," arguing that Americans' reluctance to study foreign civilizations could eventually become a threat to national security.

The scathing report produced by the Strategic Task Force on Education Abroad marked the first attempt to question Americans' ability to grasp the meaning of world events since the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

"We strongly believe that the events of September 11, 2001, constituted a wake-up call -- a warning that America's ignorance of the world is now a national liability," said the task force headed by former education secretary Richard Riley and former senator Paul Simon.

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