Posted on 12/30/2010 2:48:01 PM PST by Qbert
Now that asking and telling has ceased to be problematic in military circles, ROTC has resurfaced as a national issue: Will universities such as Harvard, Yale and other Ivy League schools be opened to Reserve Officers' Training Corps since colleges can no longer can argue that the military is biased against gays and therefore not welcome?
The debate reminds me of an interview I conducted over parents' weekend at the University of Notre Dame in 1989. I sat down with Theodore Hesburgh, the priest who had retired two years earlier after serving 35 years as the university's president...
[Snip]
I asked if he actually believed there could be a Christian method of slaughtering people in combat, or a Christian way of firebombing cities, or a way to kill civilians in the name of Jesus. Did he think that if enough Notre Dame graduates became soldiers that the military would eventually embrace Christ's teaching of loving one's enemies?
[Snip]
At Notre Dame, on that 1989 visit and several following, I learned that the ROTC academics were laughably weak. They were softie courses. The many students I interviewed were candid about their reasons for signing up: free tuition and monthly stipends, plus the guarantee of a job in the military after college. With some exceptions, they were mainly from families that couldn't afford ever-rising college tabs.
To oppose ROTC, as I have since my college days in the 1960s, when my school enticed too many of my classmates into joining, is not to be anti-soldier. I admire those who join armies, whether America's or the Taliban's: for their discipline, for their loyalty to their buddies and to their principles, for their sacrifices to be away from home...
(emphasis added)
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Now your getting it, maybe there will be no reason for you to be sent to the camps for reprogramming!
This freak equates our military with the Taliban: those brave folk who blow up great, ancient art and brutalize women and children beyond comprehension. Deeply intellectual take.
To equate taliban terrorists to our patriots shows all you need to know about this wimp.
“I admire those who join armies, whether America’s or the Taliban’s”
An astoundingly stupid and traitorous statement.
As long as the taxpayers get to keep all their money then we don’t need to put ROTC back at these hallowed halls of liberal indoctrination.
"At Notre Dame, on that 1989 visit and several following, I learned that the ROTC academics were laughably weak. They were softie courses."
I'm not sure how the author comes to this conclusion. For a course to count for credit, it must meet the requirements set forth by the university's accreditor, otherwise no credit could be given, not even elective credit. However, he says the students took them for easy credit, which means the courses were accredited.
I also find it hard to believe a large number of the Notre Dame cadets and midshipmen were just pursued ROTC for a scholarship. While there are plenty who go the ROTC route for a scholarship opportunity, I would think the majority at Notre Dame would be motivated by service, especially in a post 9/11 world.
In some cases, accreditors have rated ROTC courses as directly substitutable for curriculum required courses, or for required electives. For example, due to the significant amount of writing and speaking assignments in Air Force ROTC, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools allowed some ROTC courses to substitute for the technical writing course required in engineering majors at my university.
Some of the elite schools claim ROTC instructors do not meet the requirements for an Assistant Professor, however Air Force ROTC requires ROTC instructors to have masters degrees. The simple solution would be for similar requirements on Army and Navy ROTC in those schools.
Sure, ROTC classes were not as demanding as thermodynamics or controls theory, but the difference is if you screwed up in ROTC, you lost your post university employment and perhaps your scholarship if you were on a ROTC scholarship. If you do poorly in a regular class, you just retook it.
Ivy Leaguers send people to war, isn’t that enough. :)
Look at this clown’s Wikipedia entry. He’s beneath contempt. His theory, distilled, is that we need to never meet violence with violence. No matter how many people die in the process (his Hitler quote is 50,000,000...) wait the evil out and non violence will absolutely work.
He’s also a self-avowed anarchist. Oh goody, there’s a political theory that works on a large scale.
I hope he knows that the intellectuals (which I’m sure he considers himself to be) are the second to be killed by totalitarians, right after their favorite racial/ethnic whipping people.
I’ve heard all of the lame excuses and arguments over the years. Let’s compare ROTC with African American or Women’s Studies programs and then we can talk about standards and academic rigor.
The real reason of course, is that these elitist snobs hate America, they hate the military, and they are narrow minded bigots who will only allow those who agree with their one world view on their precious campus. Makes one regret that we did away with burning at the stake.
IIRC, it was back during the Vietnam War or just after.
The pantywaist who wrote this drivel seems to miss the FACT that ‘kum-biy-ya’ doesn’t translate well. Into Arabic, and nearly every other tounge. It is a pity he has a access to young minds in the DC area.
Seems to me that history refutes his position. Regardless, he's the same sanctimonious fool he's always been.
Quotations
"Hitler could have been waited out. He might have been overthrown by his own government. Who knows? To have 50 million people killed: Hitler would have died within 10 years no matter what he did."[5]
"I dress like a Republican so I can talk like an Anarchist."
“Who is this guy?”
The bottom of the full article says he’s a former Post columnist, and “directs the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington and teaches courses on nonviolence at four area universities and two high schools.”
(He probably also beats his significant other at home...)
I doubt it was based upon any analysis of factual matter. It was just pure Lib bigotry: “Ivy league people are brilliant/Military personnel are dumb”. The John Kerry “you better study hard or you will wind up in Afghanistan”, or whatever it was, sort of thing.
More from this nutjob:
“As the moral and peaceful solution after 9-11, Mr. McCarthy called on America to apologize to the terrorists and ask for forgiveness in reciprocation...”
http://michellemalkin.com/2006/03/06/the-kids-are-alright/
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