[Peace-discuss] Supporting imperialism since 1636

[C. G. Estabrook]

[A question of the presence of the US Army's "Reserve Officer Training Corps" at 
various universities comes up in this week's News from Neptune (Fridays 7pm on 
cable channel 6).  The new president of Harvard - her predecessor was the awful 
Larry Summers - here disappoints many people who hoped that she would keep ROTC 
off a campus from which it had been ejected by the anti-war movement forty years 
ago.  --CGE]

   Harvard president says ROTC welcome once gay ban ends
   CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts | Wed Nov 17, 2010 11:06pm EST

(Reuters) - Harvard University's president on Wednesday invited the U.S. 
military to restore a training program at the college once a ban on gays serving 
openly is lifted.

"A ROTC program, open to all, ought to be fully and formally present on our 
campus," said Harvard President Drew Faust. She made the comment to welcome an 
evening speech by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, the top 
U.S. military officer.

Faust drew applause from the audience of several hundred for the offer to 
restore the university's Reserve Officer Training Corps program. A previous 
version ended at the school in 1969, sending cadets to a similar program at the 
nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

At the time objections to Harvard's ROTC program centered on the Vietnam War, 
but have since shifted to the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy 
prohibiting openly gay men and women from serving.

The U.S. Supreme Court last week denied a request to lift the ban, sending the 
issue back to a divided Congress. Mullen has supported ending the ban but wants 
the change to be made by Congress to show it has political support.

After Faust's remarks, Mullen said: "I think it is incredibly important to have 
ROTC units at institutions like this. I would do all in my power to make that 
happen."

Faust has made a point of forging closer ties with the U.S. military, which 
sends many officers to courses at the school.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AH10120101118