(Boy) Scouts train to fight terrorists and more

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/us/14explorers.html?_r=2&hp

EXCERPT:

The responding officers — eight teenage boys and girls, the youngest 14 — face tripwire, a thin cloud of poisonous gas and loud shots — BAM! BAM! — fired from behind a flimsy wall. They move quickly, pellet guns drawn and masks affixed.

“United States Border Patrol! Put your hands up!” screams one in a voice cracking with adolescent determination as the suspect is subdued.

It is all quite a step up from the square knot.

The Explorers program, a coeducational affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America that began 60 years ago, is training thousands of young people in skills used to confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence

thousands of young people about Engineering and the Sciences, Law Enforcement, Debating Skills, Native American studies, sailing and oceanography...

You're correct, though. The Explorer program does a lot of good instruction.