if I want to talk about international relations, I’ll talk to General Petraeus. If I want to talk about killing people and breaking things…I’d rather consult with George Patton.

Based on the conduct of recent West Pointers such as Powell, Clarke, Eaton and Zinni, I’ve made noises about turning the damned place into a museum and beefing up OCS. But if WAPO thinks the same thing, it’s likely a bad idea…

Okay…I’ll bite:

Powell: ROTC City College of NY
Zinni: Marine Corps’ Platoon Leader Class at Villanova University
Eaton: USAF officer, but graduated West Point
Clarke: West Point

CJ, Lt Col, USAF

My wife and I were both direct commission officers (Army MC). We respectively graduated from the two undergraduate colleges attended by our current president. When our son told us he was interested in a military career, he was strongly DISCOURAGED from considering either one of our alma maters. He’s currently finishing his plebe year at the Academy and knows he made the right choice.

I’ve been a self-taught historian for over 35 years (since boyhood), and some years ago I decided to get formal training in the subject. If what I have seen is in any way indicative of the overall quality of civilian institutions and their instruction, it would be a very serious mistake indeed to abolish the service academies.

Civilian universities and colleges share fewer and fewer values with the military, and traditional Americans generally, than at any time in our history.

Of course, there are exceptions, but college faculty today are overwhelmingly leftist, to radical leftist-Marxist. Post-modernism is the dominant intellectual current, alongside feminism and deoncstructionism. Political correctness has run amok. Middle-aged white males need not apply; female and/or minority candidates are preferred. “Diversity” is a word one hears frequently on college campuses; everyone says they are for it – unless it applies to intellectual diversity, that is. If you are looking for a position in the academy, disclosing that one is conservative and/or Republican is career suicide. Ditto supporting Israel, or being vocal about the threat of Islamic jihad. Lastly, being unashamedly pro-American, pro-freedom, pro-free enterpise, pro-gun, and pro-life are also “the kiss of death” in many departments – especially in the humanities.

I know a great deal about military history, and thus can say with certainty that many if not most civlian historians are unqualified to teach this subject. It has been out-of-favor on campus for many years, and is no longer taught as a routine part of a well-rounded history education.

In a nutshell, closing our service academies is a bad idea, given their historic role as repositories of many of our best traditional martial and cultural values. Personally, I’d like to see the civilian academic world grow more like, not less similar to, the service culture.

Speaking as a would-be citizen soldier, I’d like to see the military expand opportunities for mid-career professionals to become military leaders, either NCOs or officers. Since we are talking about older entrants, perhaps that would mean doing it via shorter length AD or reserve terms of service. That means upping the age cutoffs for entering the services, and reconfiguring how officers and NCOs are selected and trained. There’s a lot of good, unused talent out there that could do a lot of good in the military if these reforms were made. There are practical hurdles to overcome, but I’m convinced these could be managed successfully and the return would be sustantial in my view.

1) “It is the classic fallacy of our time that a moron run through a university and decorated with a Ph.D. will thereby cease to be a moron.” H.L. Mencken

2) Where did Ricks get his high-powered education that he doesn’t know the argumentum ad ignorantiam? Some Podunk Community College?

He has beclowned himself.

I have a son attending West Point. Some of his social science faculty members – Academy Professors and Civilian Faculty – are listed here. Most have PH.D’s, even from those fancy ROTC loving schools like Princeton, Columbia, Hopkins and even Harvard.

Guess these teachers had to make the choice between junior colleges or the Academy.

Guess Ricks didn’t have time to check out these very public facts.

http://www.dean.usma.edu/departments/sosh/3_Faculty/faculty.htm