Send R.O.T.C. Back to School

[usna09mom]

<p>Send R.O.T.C. Back to School</p>

<p>Read the entire article and responses:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/opinion/09harbaugh.html?ref=opinion[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/opinion/09harbaugh.html?ref=opinion&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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SINCE the Vietnam War, R.O.T.C. programs have been banned from operating on campus at elite universities like Yale and Harvard. These institutions have also long hindered the military’s efforts to recruit their students. But in March 2006, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the military must be allowed back on all campuses. The door is open. More important, the students themselves are ready.

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<p>I’ll glad to see this along with expedited citizenship for military service. President Obama is following through on his campaign promise to expand the U.S. military.</p>

[Shiloh]

<p>Thanks for posting that link.</p>

<p>From the NY Times article (by Kenneth Harbaugh):</p>

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I recently taught a course on the obligations of citizenship at Yale, where I also spent three years as a law student. If my university holds some prejudice against military service, its students, in my experience, don’t seem to.

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<p>It is largely the faculties and outside organizations that agitate against ROTC not the students at these universities.</p>

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Toward the end of the semester, I took my class to West Point. None of my students had ever seen a military base, and only one had a friend his age in uniform. But every one of them was deeply respectful of what they saw.

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<p>Thankfully, these students are more respectful than Vietnam era college students.</p>

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Whenever I encounter animus toward the military at Yale, it is almost always born of ignorance. Students often cite the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays in the military as a justification for the ban on R.O.T.C. They are far more sympathetic when I explain that such policies are enacted by Congress, and that the military has no choice but to comply.

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<p>I wonder if they ever consider that changes regarding the American military should be made to enhance national defense and to defeat enemies. </p>

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And without my saying it, they also knew that the decisions leading to war are made by elite civilians like themselves.

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<p>Such a high price to pay.</p>

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Kenneth Harbaugh, a former Navy pilot, is the executive director of the Center for Citizen Leadership.

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<p>Thanks, Mr. Harbaugh - wish you were still at Yale.</p>

[PRUNEFACE]

<p>I think private schools should be able to kick the programs off campus, they’re not owned by the government</p>

[usna09mom]

<p>However, private colleges get lots of federal dollars in grants to support research and students get federal loans and grants to pay their tuition, expenses, etc.</p>