Posted on 01/24/2006 3:38:47 PM PST by StAthanasiustheGreat
Military has no place at universities
by Henry M. Bowles III
January 24, 2006
It was a relief to hear that the normally sedated campus Left bothered to protest the creepy presence of military recruiters at the Martin Luther King Jr. job fair. The recruiters’ presence most certainly was, as the NOWAR activists observed, out of line with King’s pacifism. That the protests were reserved for one particularly distasteful instance of military recruiting highlights just how far apart Northwestern stands from its peer universities on the issue. Most elite universities have significant movements, with both students and faculty involvement, to ban military recruiting from campus altogether, mostly due to the military’s ban on open gays from serving.
The irony is that Northwestern is home to Charles Moskos, chief architect of the 1993 law “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Despite his status as a renowned military sociologist and campus celebrity, Moskos has no qualifications for making policy on sexuality. As a result, his major policy achievement has been a disaster. “Don’t Ask” made the absurd promise to rid the military of the sexuality issue, and though it’s mostly stopped inquiries into service members’ sex lives, it has doubled dismissals for people who dare to be honest about their sexuality.
Moskos himself predicts the policy will be gone within the decade, and dismissed its apparent rationale when he told Lingua Franca in 2000: “Fuck unit cohesion. I don’t care about that.” But he does care about “modesty rights for straights.” He said, “I should not be forced to shower with a woman. I should not be forced to shower with a gay.” Moskos’ one-dimensional understanding of human sexuality assumes stable categories of sexual attraction — as if only a man who identifies as “gay” would lust after another man in the shower. He also assumes such lusting would be a problem, an ahistorical idea indeed, given that the military practically invented gay sex. The Moskos standard would have been grounds for dismissal of the entire Spartan army, and if reports are to be believed, much of the Allied forces during World War II.
Protesting military recruiters on campus, so long as they ban open gays from joining, is admirable. But there’s a more permanent reason to keep the military away from our brightest students. Young males are easily manipulated during the period of their lives when they exist outside the female domain, after the mother and before the wife. They are above all eager to demonstrate masculinity. With its promises of order, fraternity and cohesion, the military taps into this angst. A real tragedy occurs when a young man, susceptible to the military’s appeal and nonetheless intelligent and creative, signs up to become cannon fodder. He’ll probably leave the military alive, but he’ll have been irreversibly molded, less inclined to dissent. Less intelligent people are better equipped for most military positions, and have far less to lose.
Henry M. Bowles III is a Medill senior. He can be reached at
h-bowles@northwestern.edu.
Well sir, you just might be an idiot...but you were one of MY idiots!
And despite your higher rank and IQ, thousands of people thought our primary job was to do anything and everything required to ensure you could and would, fly that munitions delivery system to our designated targets.
And we also expended quite a bit of effort to make sure it was at least theoretically possible, that you return to whoever was left, alive.
And we all still looked each other straight in the eye, everyday...
I very much doubt any person whose sole qualification in life appears to be that of a "student of higher education" is qualified to opine in any worthwhile manner, on the topic of the military, which appears to be incomprehensible to him/her/it.
I also would not trust this persons uneducated opinion on how and where to build an outhouse, and who is best qualified for the task....
http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/01/04/43bb702a7bef6?in_archive=1
Apparently, he is a Winter Quarter Columnist. For Tuesday's. Spring is right around the corner.
The real reason. They fear too many bright young men will be rendered immune to Leftist indoctrination
I always figured they would not hand nukes over to stupid people. I'm gratified to have that confirmed. Thank you for your service
Many of the enlisted types are no slouches either. Especially the career NCOs. One the first, and most important, things they teach cadets (ROTC, Academy or OCS) is to listen to your senior NCOs. They know whereof they speak.
When the aristocratic elites of a society are no longer willing to defend it, the society is in trouble. The only thing is, guys like this only think they are the elite. They're dead wrong.
Of this I have no doubt. I can only offer testimony about those of whom I have direct knowledge.
Two of the three most recent applicants for officer's training that I have written recommendations for where NCOs (E5).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.