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

[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>