Posted: Mon Dec 31 2001
Modern Youth Dub War "Not That Bad"

A recent survey conducted by the Presidents Council for the Determination of Young People's Attitudes and Ideas has revealed that the small minority of American youths that are aware that the US is at war find it not to be that bad a deal. The survey is part of a report released Thursday which also includes several interviews with young people about exactly how the war is affecting them.

The majority of those polled or interviewed are covered in the section entitled "War? What War?" which covers youth who had no idea that we were involved in any sort of military action. "Oh, so this is about blowing up those buildings in New York?" Remarks a high school student once it is explained to him, "That's cool, we should do something about that."

"So is that why they had all those concerts?" Asks a freshman in college. She says that she was aware of a lot of people talking about the events of September 11th but she hadn't realized that it had to do with America and just ignored it all. "There's always someone carrying on about some stupid thing or another, eventually you start to block it out."

Not all of the youth of America are afflicted with this degree of tunnel-vision, however. Approximately 30% of the 2063 Americans between the ages of 16 and 21 that were interviewed did know that the World Trade Center had been destroyed by terrorists and that we were at war with Afghanistan but confusion still reigned even in this more enlightened group. 58% of them thought that Osama bin Ladin was the president of Afghanistan, another 2% thought that he was the president of Iraq, and 13% thought he was a video DJ on the Al Quida Network.

Of those who did understand that America was at war very few had anything bad to say about it. 45% said "War is bad" while 300 totally retro teens said that "War is not healthy for children and other living things". The rest said that the evil of war had been greatly exaggerated. "Gas prices haven't even gone up." Shrugs one 17 year old.

"Now that I'm in a war," Says one 8th grade student, "I realize what a bunch of wussies all those people whining about World War 2 must have been."


--Phillip Matank