Geographic Illiteracy

I just came across the following article, Study: Geography Greek to young Americans, and found it both interesting and disturbing considering the prominent role the U.S. plays around the world:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/05/02/geog.test/index.html

Here is an article about the same story directly from National Geographic:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/0502_060502_geography.html

The decisions and actions made and taken by the United States play a profound role and have a great impact in many local places and lives around the world. I think it might be important for U.S. citizens to at least be cognizant of who, what, and where is/are affected by the actions of our country.Here are the results of the actual survey/report:
http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/roper2006/findings.html

and if you would like to test your own knowledge through a twenty-question sample of the survey questions, then go here:
http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/roper2006/question_01.html

And here is an excerpt from http://www.worldhum.com/
"Where's Iraq?
Although we Americans are famously lacking in world geography knowledge, there has always been one surefire way we could learn a country’s place on the map: by attacking it, or at least intervening in its affairs. When that happens, our newspapers feature little regional maps with the country colored black, and our TV news shows offer up little glowing maps in the right-hand corner of our television screens. This is how we learned that Vietnam is a nation in Southeast Asia, and that Nicaragua is a small country in Central America. But now, sadly, even this extreme educational method is failing. Reports CNN: “After more than three years of combat and nearly 2,400 U.S. military deaths in Iraq, nearly two-thirds of Americans aged 18 to 24 still cannot find Iraq on a map, a study released Tuesday showed." The National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs 2006 Geographic Literacy Study states that it coincides with the launch of the National Geographic-led campaign called ‘My Wonderful World.’
http://www.mywonderfulworld.org/
A statement on the program said it was designed to ‘inspire parents and educators to give their kids the power of global knowledge.’”