Posted on 01/24/2015 10:14:53 AM PST by Steelfish
Abolish West Point — And The Other Service Academies, Too
By Scott Beauchamp January 23
Most Americans are familiar with the prestige that surrounds the United States military service academies. Various names and phrases, spoken like solemn incantations, attest to their sacrosanct status: the Point, the Long Gray Line, Annapolis, cadets. Their graduates constitute a who’s who of American greatness, including Ulysses Grant, Jimmy Carter, novelist James Salter and sci-fi writer Robert Heinlein, to name a few. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, in a 1962 address at West Point, typified the veneration when he told the cadets that they were “the leaven which binds together the entire fabric of our national system of defense.”
The service academies — the U.S. Military Academy for the Army (West Point), the U.S. Naval Academy, the U.S. Air Force Academy and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy — promise to educate and mold future officers charged with leading the enlisted members of the military.
But they are not the hallowed arbiters of quality promised by their myths. Their traditions mask bloated government money-sucks that consistently underperform. They are centers of nepotism that turn below-average students into average officers. They are indulgences that taxpayers, who fund them, can no longer afford. They’ve outlived their use, and it’s time to shut them down.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I wonder if Scotty Beauchamp likes fish sticks?
West point like any school produces both stellar and mediocre graduates. Sometimes the mediocre grads become stellar officers and the stellar grads become mediocre officers.
Its life.
They are some of the most selective schools in the country with the highest SAT’s. This guy is just jealous.
The author has no clue as to what Wet Point does.
Just my opinion.
“Jimmy Carter”
AH- HA - HA - HA - HA - HA!
He lost me right there!
Yes there’s some nepotism - show me a school where that isn’t true. There is also real research done by the staffs that would be lost without them. Iight see the coast guard and merchant marine academies combined (note he’s uninformed enough he missed the latter) but otherwise they serve a solid purpose... Leave em be and work on the problems just like any other organization.
Yeah I’m biased just like him in the other direction
Go Navy, Beat Army
USNA ‘89
Iight = I could
But the Washington Post loves “bloated government money-sucks.”
do you all realize that the "leaders" of almost every dept in our govt is an obammy appointee and leftist or moslem or gay or all three?....
do you all realize that our national security is a joke.....we have no security...
obammy has successfully destroyed our republic....
and yet we had freepers and conservatives refusing to vote for Romney, on principle....
well, enjoy your principle why we become the banana republic ripe for takeover by ISIS or China or the gay cabal....
you asked for it....you got it....
and now, lets continue to debase Romney/Christie/Jeb etc because that 's what we do....we eat our own and destroy decent candidates infavor of handing elections to democrats..
“They are some of the most selective schools in the country with the highest SAT’s.”
True.
I encouraged my homeschooled daughter to grab Annapolis....best of the best.
But she took herself to a Merchant academy instead.
During her time at school, another homeschooler friend went to Annapolis. I had some conversations with that young man on the phone, and I was shocked at the lax, country-club, low-expection, easy-pass atmosphere he described. By contrast, the Merchant academy my daughter attended was more locked-down, and involved a much more rigorous course of studies.
So I think the author might be right.
Besides that, those who are admitted have to pass very rigorous physicals, meet athletic criteria, have leadership or other impressive talents, and have a strong HS transcript. The students make a commitment to serve when they've completed their educations. The academies give everyone, whatever their background, the opportunity to get ahead in life without the restriction of insurmountable debt. Besides that, the students at the academies get to interact with and respect the best of the best from the most diverse backgrounds imaginable.
In a country that's falling apart at the seams, it's the service academy students who will preserve the culture, history, and traditions of the US.
WEST Point
I don’t know - wet might be right :)
GNBA
You’re basically making his point.....
“But they are not the hallowed arbiters of quality promised by their myths. Their traditions mask bloated government money-sucks that consistently underperform. They are centers of nepotism that turn below-average students into average officers”
Also describing the Ivy league.
What the service academies cost to keep open probably wouldn’t service this country’s debt for a month. I don’t know for sure, but I’m betting the cost of the academies is a very tiny drop in the huge bucket of national debt.
Even he is admitting that the service academies produce something.
Why doesn't he advocate getting rid of some of the tens of millions of parasites on the government teat who will produce absolutely nothing useful in the entirety of their lives?
“and yet we had freepers and conservatives refusing to vote for Romney, on principle. And now, lets continue to debase Romney/Christie/Jeb etc because that ‘s what we do....”
I’m one who voted for Romney. And I wish I hadn’t have done so. Maybe if he had lost by a giant margin, they would have noticed more and I wouldn’t have to deal with Romney/Christie/Jeb.
With Romney, I get a president who is for amnesty, assault rifle bans, Obamacare, a global warming believer, abortion, and gay marriage. Other than apple pie and wave the flag Americana trappings. Exactly -what- do I get with a Romney/Jeb/Christie?
I connot think of a meaningful difference in Romney and Obama beyond emotional feel good stuff. They are in lockstep on policy in every critical area.
Like abolishing the entire Dept. f Education. This agency was created by Carter.
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