The College Needs ROTC

WHAT IVORY-TOWER arrogance! Dartmouth benefits far more from ROTC than the Pentagon does. The College's 50 officers-in-training barely make a ripple in the military. But look what the military gives to the College: scholarships and benefits totaling as much as $13,000 per student annually.

Keep government out of Dartmouth? Dream on! The College has a highly capable fall-time staff that works to increase the feds' presence. How much presence? It currently totals $54 million a year, with all the regulatory strings attached.

ROTC is a relatively benign, if distant, participant. It's one of the most generous federal scholarship programs accessible to the middle class the very people who are being priced out of the elite-college market.

As for the ban on homosexuals, like our distinguished other half we wouldn't be surprised to see it lifted eventually. Clearly, the PC types on campus are angry that the Pentagon isn't evolving quickly enough in its thinking. But we wonder whether a change in military policy would satisfy the academic left. If homosexuals were allowed to enlist, would the liberals actually welcome ROTC back? Or is the gay issue a convenient excuse to oppose anything to do with the military on campus?

We think our alter ego betrays the real issue: a thoughtless pacifism left over from Vietnam days. Let other Americans do the dirty work in keeping us free, say these peace-loving academics to themselves. Out of sight, out of mind.

So who are the hypocrites?