ROTC is Back at Ivy League
Well, well, well, I read a NYTimes article complimentary about the military and college; the return of the ROTC program to some Ivy League colleges. What does this mean? Is it a good thing to have the military return to college campuses? In both instances, I think yes, having former military commanders offer classes at leading universities will benefit the students and the country in general.
The column noted that General Stanley A. McChrystal is teaching at Yale. The former “Runaway General,” and the former overall commander in Afghanistan, who was fired by Obama, is teaching a leadership seminar at Yale.
Admiral Mike Mullen, the former Chairman of The Joint Chiefs, is offering courses on diplomacy and military affairs at Princeton.
Admiral Eric T. Olson, former head of Special Operations who was involved in the planning of the Osama Bin Laden raid, is teaching irregular warfare classes at Columbia. Besides this, he is also open to the idea of listening to students offer “outside the box” ideas. What a great concept.
With these three intelligent and militarily knowledgeable men offering classes, who wouldn’t want to attend!! C’mon, imagine attending a class taught by the guy who helped plan the OBL raid?! I took a Vietnam Seminar in college and would have loved to pick the brains and hash out ideas with General Westmoreland. Instead, I was taught by a Vietnam protester and politically liberal professor ignorant of the conservative position. Which class do you think would have been more fun to attend?!
The knowledge learned in these classes has to be better than the water-downed information and liberal tweaked bias from a war protester professor! Also, think of the information one can learn from these men rather than the reporting from the news media, and I am saying the conservative media is included. Not every aspect of a military mission gets released to the media, so these students are getting first hand information from the guys that were “present at the creation” of secret, high level military operations. According to the article, McChrystal has warned students not to talk about some sensitive conversations he teaches in class. Need I say more?!
Why? Before I answer that, let’s all just admit many former Presidents, State Department Officials, Supreme Court Justices, Senators and Congressmen have been undergraduate or post-graduate students at Yale, Princeton and Columbia. Washington is littered with men and women who have attended these institutions.
Want a few names? Besides FDR, Kennedy and Gore from Harvard, there are the Bush’s, Cheney, Judges Roberts, and Thomas and Alito, Senators Leiberman and Kerry and Clintons from Yale, Schultz, Bradley, and Rumsfeld from Princeton. There are many others, but like or dislike this or any list, Ivy League colleges send there graduates to Washington; or should I say, they eventually end up there.
So why is ROTC good for Ivy League students? Since several graduates eventually land in D.C., a background in classes about the combination and intertwining of military and civilian affairs in military operations and the political consequences is beneficial to future leaders. If one of these students end up in Washington in whichever occupation, this person will have garnered knowledge from past events from the leaders involved and could apply the lessons learned to current problems. Let me ask, would one like have a President making decisions based on what the current crop of Joint Chiefs are advising, who may have military bias, or would one like to have a commander in chief who studied under former military leaders ?
Are some of the failed or unpopular wars since 1968, when ROTC was abolished from these campuses, attributed to the civilian leadership lack of any historical and military perspective that these classes could have offered? With military operations transforming from an all out frontal assault to a smaller crises where special operations, diplomacy and political overtones take precedent, future leader will need all three, and the ROTC provides this.
The Whirling Dervish
Obama’s is taking on Water
Obama is in trouble; and he knows it!
Because 2012 is the 100th Anniversary of the Titantic’s sinking, Obama’s chances at re-election are sinking. Why? Like the sailors on the Titantic whose fate was cast without the chance to change course, or seal the water flowing in, the sailors worked feverishly despite their inner knowledge that hey were doomed.
President Obama is in trouble this election year because he knows defeat is likely. By increasing domestic and foreign travel, Obama knows he is in trouble because he is avoiding any presidential duties in Washington. He hasn’t proposed any policy initiative, blames everyone else for failed policies, and takes credit where it is NOT due to him.
The endless list begins with Obamacare, Keystone, Simpson-Bowles, firing GE’s Chairman Immelt, whose was supposed to advise how to increase jobs. On the foreign policy front, he bows to friends, ignores allies and promotes the drilling for oil for foreign countries to help other countries other than his own. If it didn’t appear to an observer that Obama’s policies are devised to destroy America than to revitalize it, I would say I am crazy. On both fronts, his policies have failed, and what is troubling is he won’t admit it, and neither will his supporters! They scream deflections about Reagan raising taxes six times; Clinton had higher taxes, all to divert the electorate from the CURRENT mess their leader put the US in.
When the president has to travel on a “sneak” trip which in and of itself is trying to be “cool” as Jimmy Kimmel would describe it, to take credit for an assassination of OBL, well the President is desperate. Not even FDR took credit for the P-38 pilots who shot down Admiral Yamamoto. A nod of approval and a pat on the back with the “good job” exclamation from the President would have sufficed.
Recent reports even said Obama did not “pull the trigger”; Admiral McRaven was more responsible for OBL’s death, than Obama! But, hey, “I’m the President!” How can he take credit for one success as miniscule of an operation when compared to ten years of war, but not take the blame for three years of mismanagement and expect the electorate to take him seriously?!! If the left and the liberal media would not justify Bush’s re-election after the capture, not the assassination, of Saddam Hussein, then why do they think Obama deserves to be re-elected because someone else shot OBL?!
He has skipped town on junkets to college campuses trying for the youth vote. His speeches remind the students he is their savior, attacking the Wall Street Bankers to not raise interest rates on student loans. Can I interject a minute to reveal Obama’s hypocrisy? If Wall Street banks did not take risks, make enough profits for student loans, then where would these students have received the money to pay for college? Talk about cutting off the hands that feeds them! Obama cannot even twist the lies to work in his favor!
Obama has been to more fundraisers this year than the five previous presidents COMBINED! You don’t think he needs the money to face Romney this fall?
When moderate Democrats and independents are dissenting, you know the end is near. Several Democrats are bailing the sinking ship to remain in the middle, admitting Obama has gone too far to the left. Unlike Obama, independents can admit failure and change course. I applaud. “Ok, we tried something, it didn’t work, so let’s move on and try something else” is a statement of leaders. But Obama has never been a leader. Like being the first African American as Chairman of Harvard’s Law Review, who enjoyed the power, amenities and prestige of the title, but hated the work, the responsibilities and commitments that come with it. With his anti US, anti economy, statements, it is as if he doesn’t care, just so long as he can fly in Air Force One and be cool.
Pride commeth before the fall, but Obama’s attitude is more hubris and we have seen enough Greek tragedy, 2000 years ago and today! And like the Titantic’s crew that played music once they knew they were doomed, Obama is enjoying the last days he has left.
Women’s Masters
There is just too much rhetoric about this so called, ”War on Women” in the media as of late. It started with the Komen Foundation and Planned Parenthood dispute. Then along came the female Georgetown Law student, Sandra Fluke, who wanted her Catholic institution’s health care to provide contraception. Recently, it was the IBM CEO Virginia “Ginni” Rometty who did nothing, but demurred to the media fascination that The Augusta National Golf Club will now be “forced” to admit her to full membership.
I am disgusted. Not at women, or these women in particular, but in the media and the proponents that women should be able to become members in any all male member clubs. Wrong! In retrospect,, if the men in all male clubs are Neanderthals for being all male, why would women want to join to live with cavemen?
Why? Besides sending a bad message, proponents are sending the wrong message. Instead of abridging the constitutional right of any citizen to start a club, group, etc with any criteria, the supporters are forcing these exclusive clubs to accept whoever complains.
By attempting to assuage Augusta or other clubs to open their membership to accept women, the media is, by their demands to Augusta, are portraying women as not capable of doing something on their own; that women need men’s help. Rather than prolonging this bad message of a women’s inferiority complex, the media should urge women to be bold and show some initiative to start their own club.
This leads to the wrong message. The supporters should be proposing that women start their own female-only club and start their own Masters Tournament.
With the media’s outrage, I am reminded of my college days when a friend at another school tried to start a sorority. The administration disallowed this women’s effort and instead proposed she join a fraternity. Neither the men nor my friend was happy, but the administration was thrilled to break down these “boys” clubs. This is the bad and wrong message. We should urge women to be creative on their own, build a club, or any organization and support their efforts.
Looking around, I notice many prominent women who could join forces and do what Bobby Jones did 80 years ago. Businesswomen such as Oprah Winfrey, Carly Fiorina and Ginni Rometty make for a good beginning. Add LPGA past and present players such as Juli Inkster, Dottie Pepper, and Nancy Lopez to the Mix and an all-women’s club will become a reality.
In the end, if women become members of male only clubs, are they really equal? Or, does equality come when there is a Women’s Masters Tournament like the men’s?
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