Academic

NEW YORK TIMES: Gates Fears Wider Gap Between Country and Military. Even after Sept. 11, 2001, M?

By Glenn Reynolds

NEW YORK TIMES: Gates Fears Wider Gap Between Country and Military.

Even after Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Gates said, ?in the absence of a draft, for a growing number of Americans, service in the military, no matter how laudable, has become something for other people to do.?

The defense secretary said that military recruits came increasingly from the South, the mountain West and small towns, and less often from the Northeast, West Coast and big cities. The military?s own basing decisions have reinforced the trend, he said, with a significant percentage of Army posts moved in recent years to just five states: Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas and Washington. . . .

Mr. Gates dismissed any notion of reinstituting the draft, terming the all-volunteer force that began in the 1970s a ?remarkable success.? But he called for the return of R.O.T.C. to elite campuses across the country ? Duke is unusual in that it has three programs ? and for the academically gifted to consider military service.

Clearly, we need federal legislation forcing schools like Harvard to offer R.O.T.C. on pain of being shut down or defunded. In the interests of diversity.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on October 01, 2010 (boomark / email).