Editorial Calls for End to ROTC Program at North Carolina State University

At least if you are going to have an opinion against having an ROTC program on campus have it backed up by legitimate facts:

North Carolina’s economy represents a paradox in Southern conservatism. Despite a longstanding tradition of skepticism toward the federal government, the state’s dependence on the U.S. military highlights a glaring cognitive dissonance. The military’s impact on NC State reflects a scaled-down version of the state as a whole, as much of our funding — like all public universities — is contingent upon the university’s allowance of ROTC and recruiters on campus.

Without this funding, much of the technological innovation that we claim with pride would not have been possible. However, just like the communities throughout North Carolina that rely on bases and weapons factories for economic stability, our dependence on the military has created a kind of legal blackmail that stifles NC State’s intellectual and creative freedom, and exploits its students.

In a Technician opinion column published March 5, 2004, Andrew Sheppard calls for the end of NC State’s ROTC program, arguing that “every semester that we continue to support these programs is another semester contributing to ongoing crimes abroad.” It’s remarkable that more than 15 years after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and with the recent U.S.-led interventions in Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Syria, Sheppard’s appeal for an end to the militarization of the university remains alone.  [Technician Online]

You can read the rest at the link if you can take it.  I don’t even know where to start with all the nonsense in this article.  First of all if she is worried about “crimes abroad” instead of protesting ROTC why doesn’t she go protest the political leaders who send the troops abroad?  The NC State ROTC program has nothing to do with when and where US troops are deployed to.

Then her screed that ROTC exploits minorities and poor people might as well be considered racist or however you want to define it because she obviously thinks these people are too stupid to make decisions for themselves and instead need an intellectual superior like herself to save them from the NC State ROTC program.  Then she claims that ROTC students are selling their lives to the federal government; well what are all the students with $100,000 in student loan debt for an underwater basket weaving degree doing?

Then she claims if you are deployed you will be faced with conducting “immoral acts” and “encounter huge civilian casualties, extrajudicial imprisonment and killing of terror suspects”.  Does she even realize how few people even leave the FOBs while deployed?  The term “fobbit” was developed for a reason.  Even very few of those who leave a FOB will have any of the experiences she claims will happen to them.

I could go on, but I will let the comments section jump in on this issue.