Regarding JROTC Offers More to Kids than Critics: Letter to Union Trib

[Rich Gibson <rgibson@pipeline.com>]

Regarding JROTC Offers More to Kids than Critics:

Why keep ROTC off high-school and college campuses? Because the crux 
of the purpose of education is to struggle for the truth. The US 
military and the truth have only contradiction in common. After all, 
the first rule of the military is deception. The practice of the US 
military is to heap one small lie on another: Vietnam is a domino, 
body counts, weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Al-Queda running 
the Iraqi resistance, the current promise of perpetual war is not 
about oil and imperial control but terrorism.

These small lies conceal a much bigger one of concern to educators: 
The vast majority of US troops are fighting the enemies of their real 
enemies, dying to protect the lavish lives of incredibly rich US 
elites, suffering terrible wounds battling on the wrong side of an 
international war of the rich on the poor. Teachers and communities 
should not join in schooling that promotes the kind of nationalism 
that turns education into a pipeline for voluntary servitude.

Dr Rich Gibson
Emeritus Professor of Education
San Diego State University