U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge returned from a recent trip to Afghanistan and said commanders there were "guardedly optimistic" about the situation.
Etheridge, a Lillington Democrat whose district includes part of Fort Bragg, told reporters Friday that the 82nd Airborne is working to train local troops, a task complicated by the high illiteracy rate among Afghans.
The congressman said President Barack Obama's 18-month time frame for the country has helped Afghans "step up to the plate" to defend their country from insurgency.
He also warned that the United States needs to continue its military work with Pakistan, where three Fort Bragg soldiers were killed Wednesday by a roadside bomb.
"The real challenge all of us face is that Pakistan is a country with nuclear weapons," Etheridge said. "And it's in the best interest of all of us that those nuclear weapons not get into the wrong hands."
Etheridge traveled to Afghanistan on a bipartisan congressional trip with four other House members.
The U.S. since 1877
It's not just conservatives who think the state's proposed history curriculum is a bad idea.
A story on Fox News last week unleashed a flood of criticism on the state Department of Public Instruction, but Holly Brewer, an associate professor in N.C. State University's history department, said critics cross the political spectrum.
The proposal to limit the 11th grade American history course to the last 132 years would shortchange students, she said. "We will become a national laughingstock if this goes through," Brewer said.
She has been writing the state Department of Public Instruction in protest, and she's circulating a statewide petition. A friend started a Facebook page, "History did not begin in 1877!"
"There is no discussion of slavery anywhere in the curriculum proposed," she said. "Teaching about slavery is very much a liberal issue."
The history proposal would push pre-Reconstruction history to the middle and elementary grades, which Brewer said is inadequate.
"They have to deal with issues in high school when they can talk about things in a complex manner," she said.
The State Board of Education is revising curriculum in all subject areas.
Super Bowl partisanship
Democrats and Republicans don't agree on much these days, even when it comes to the Super Bowl.
A new national survey of 584 registered voters by Public Policy Polling found that Democrats strongly prefer the New Orleans Saints, by a 36-21 margin. Independents also lean toward the Saints, 33-20.
Republicans, meanwhile, are narrowly going for the Colts, 26-25.
Almost half of voters, 46 percent, didn't care who wins tonight.
"There may not be the same kind of partisan gap on the Super Bowl that there is for Barack Obama's approval ratings, but even when it comes to football there are two Americas," PPP President Dean Debnam said in a media release. "You're much more likely to be rooting for the Saints this weekend if you're a Democrat."
By Washington correspondent Barbara Barrett and staff writers Lynn Bonner and Michael Biesecker.
