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AFFIRMATIVE CASE: ABOLISH THE MILITARY ACADEMIES

JUST FADE AWAY: THE CASE AGAINST THE MILITARY ACADEMIES

By “Coach Vance” Trefethen

Resolved: The United States should significantly reform its policies regarding higher education.

The military service academies are undergraduate colleges directly owned and operated by the federal government. Their graduates are commissioned as officers in the armed forces and are required to commit to several years of service in return for being given a free college education at taxpayer expense. The academies have proud traditions and high reputations. This case argues that their traditions are empty and their reputations are unfounded.

Many of the students, far from being the "best and brightest," are in remedial classes to try to get them up to where most normal college freshmen should already be. The military's "proud traditions" have devolved into a militaristic spirit that perpetuates a warlike mindset in our public policy, and then backfires, since the caliber of officers they produce are not capable of actually winning any major wars (just look at the news and ask yourself how the last several wars have turned out). Unlike standard universities, a very large percentage of service academy professors don't have doctorates in the fields they're teaching, resulting in lower quality education that flies in the face of their reputations. The military could get just as many (some say better) qualified officers, at much lower cost, by simply expanding ROTC scholarships and enrollment of existing military personnel or college graduates in OCS (Officer Candidate School). It's time we closed the service academies and did just that.

Negatives will argue that the academies do, indeed, live up to the high reputations they have attained. The students make superior officers and are essential to strengthening our nation's military and providing it with quality leadership. With the military on the brink of serious deficiencies in the status quo, now is no time to weaken it further by depriving it of the quality of leaders who come from the academies.

Just Fade Away: The Case Against the Military Academies........................................................................3OBSERVATION 1. We offer the following DEFINITIONS.........................................................................................3

Policy:............................................................................................................................................................................................3Significant:....................................................................................................................................................................................3“Higher Education”:......................................................................................................................................................................3

OBSERVATION 2. INHERENCY, the structure of the Status Quo. One simple FACT:.............................................3The Military Academies................................................................................................................................................................3

OBSERVATION 3. The PLAN implemented by Congress and the President..............................................................3

OBSERVATION 4. The JUSTIFICATIONS. Despite their esteemed reputations, the service academies are flawed, obsolete, and should just fade away...........................................................................................................................4

JUSTIFICATION 1. Poor results...................................................................................................................................4A. Poor Students. A large percentage of them aren’t ready for college at all, and are disillusioned by their experience....4B. Poor Results. The mediocre results they produce don’t justify the money we spend on them........................................4C. Military Failure. The lack of leadership and accountability taught at the academies leads to military failure...............4

JUSTIFICATION 2. Less expensive alternatives...........................................................................................................5The academies cost 4 times as much as training an officer through a regular college ROTC program.......................................5

JUSTIFICATION 3. Educational Quality......................................................................................................................5Officers coming from regular colleges get better educations, and the military would be better if they all did............................5

JUSTIFICATION 4. Better officers...............................................................................................................................5

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Non-Academy officers are better educated and less cynical.........................................................................................................5

JUSTIFICATION 5. Militaristic Mindset......................................................................................................................6The Academies promote a militaristic mindset that is bad for our democracy.............................................................................6

2A Evidence: Abolish Military Academies.....................................................................................................7OPENING QUOTES / AFFIRMATIVE PHILOSOPHY..............................................................................................7

Service academies are all fake images of prestige with nothing behind them..............................................................................7

SOURCE INDICTMENT...............................................................................................................................................7Military officials and Academy students: They have to make themselves look good, and students aren’t allowed to disagree..7Military brass will defend the academies, because it’s a cushy job and easy lifestyle.................................................................7

INHERENCY.................................................................................................................................................................8SQ academies incapable of reforming themselves........................................................................................................................8Academy change won’t happen from within................................................................................................................................8Military is instinctively resistant to change...................................................................................................................................8

SOLVENCY / ADVOCACY.........................................................................................................................................8Davy Crockett 1830. West Point is aristocratic, violates the rights of citizens by giving special privileges to the rich..............8Successful example: Former British military academy Sandhurst. It shut down its college program and just does military training for graduates of other schools..........................................................................................................................................9Military academies’ budget = almost $1 billion............................................................................................................................9How much does it cost? ROTC officer training costs 25% of the academy and OCS costs 10%................................................9

JUSTIFICATIONS.......................................................................................................................................................10

Poor Results..................................................................................................................................................................10Lack of accountability at the Academies leads to failure............................................................................................................10

Education Quality.........................................................................................................................................................10Educational quality at the academies is a joke............................................................................................................................10Students end up disillusioned and worse off because of stupid rules and hypocrisy..................................................................10Hazing and indoctrination aren’t the signs of good education....................................................................................................11Air Force Academy doesn’t even realize how poorly qualified their faculty are compared to other colleges...........................11

A/T “Highly Selective”.................................................................................................................................................11A lot of selections are nepotism to connected families or big donors.........................................................................................11There are no universal standards or ethical guidelines. But campaign contributions can help!.................................................12Not highly selective when you consider football and racial quotas............................................................................................12

Officer Quality..............................................................................................................................................................12Everyone says academy officers are better. Except, they’re not, and the rest of the military knows it.....................................12Other officers are just as good as Academy officers...................................................................................................................13Goals of duty and leadership are not achieved............................................................................................................................13A/T “High ideals” – Turn: Hypocrisy of tolerating misbehavior in the Academies lowers their ideals.....................................13

Militarism......................................................................................................................................................................14Militarism threatens our democratic institutions and trashes the Founders’ vision of America.................................................14

Sexual harassment.........................................................................................................................................................14On Campus. Sexual harassment on campus is on the rise at US military academies.................................................................14After graduating: Academy graduates have high rates of sexual harassment in the military. But as long as the football team is funded, that’s OK…....................................................................................................................................................................14

DISAVANTAGE RESPONSES...................................................................................................................................15A/T “Won’t have enough officers” – Only 20% come from Academies and we can get them from ROTC much cheaper......15

Works Cited: Abolish the Military Academies............................................................................................16




JUST FADE AWAY: THE CASE AGAINST THE MILITARY ACADEMIES

In his farewell address to Congress in 1951 after being relieved of command by President Truman, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, former Superintendent of West Point, famously said “Old soldiers never die. They just fade away.” Old military institutions that become obsolete should share the same fate. Please join my partner and me as we affirm that: The United States should significantly reform its policies regarding higher education.

OBSERVATION 1. We offer the following DEFINITIONS

Policy:

“a high-level overall plan embracing the general goals and acceptable procedures especially of a governmental body” (Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, copyright 2017 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/policy)

Significant:

“having or likely to have influence or effect” (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary copyright 2017 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/significant)

“Higher Education”:

“education beyond the secondary level; especially : education provided by a college or university” (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary copyright 2017 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/higher%20education)

OBSERVATION 2. INHERENCY, the structure of the Status Quo. One simple FACT:

The Military Academies

BUSINESS INSIDER 2017 (journalist Abby Jackson) 22 Apr 2017 “There are 5 elite US service academies that prepare the next generation of the American military” http://www.businessinsider.com/us-military-service-academies-2017-4

Admission into the United States service academies are highly sought after. The United States Military, Naval, Air Force, Merchant Marine, and Coast Guard academies have acceptance rates ranging from 9% to 18%. In addition to their highly rigorous admissions processes, they enjoy an esteemed reputation for educating and preparing top-ranking members of the US military and intelligence communities for service.

OBSERVATION 3. The PLAN implemented by Congress and the President

1. Congress votes to abolish the Military, Naval, Air Force and Coast Guard academies and sell off the properties on which they are located.2. Funding for the academies will be phased out. Half of it will be transferred to expanded ROTC scholarships and Officer Candidate Schools. 3. Timeline. No new students will be admitted after January 1, 2019. Existing students will be allowed to finish and graduate until no later than Dec 31, 2024. 4. Enforcement. Federal employees not in compliance will be disciplined or terminated through normal means.5. Affirmative speeches may clarify



http://www.businessinsider.com/us-military-service-academies-2017-4

http://www.businessinsider.com/us-military-service-academies-2017-4

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/higher%20education

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/significant

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/policy


OBSERVATION 4. The JUSTIFICATIONS. Despite their esteemed reputations, the service academies are flawed, obsolete, and should just fade away

JUSTIFICATION 1. Poor results

A. Poor Students. A large percentage of them aren’t ready for college at all, and are disillusioned by their experience

Naval Academy Professor Bruce Fleming 2015. (professor of English at US Naval academy since 1987) 5 Jan 2015 “Let’s abolish West Point: Military academies serve no one, squander millions of tax dollars” http://www.salon.com/2015/01/05/lets_abolish_west_point_military_academies_serve_no_one_squander_millions_of_tax_dollars/

And they’re hardly, on average, the “best and the brightest.” In fact more than a quarter of the class has SAT scores below 600, and our average is lower than the nearby state school University of Maryland. Twenty percent of our class comes through a taxpayer-supported remedial 13th grade (another almost $50,000 per student for taxpayers). They fill our remedial courses (I am teaching some of these this semester, as a full professor)—a second try at getting them up to college level. The top 10 percent are impressive. But they are the exceptions rather than the rule, and almost all (I know from talking to them) are deeply disillusioned by the Academy and by what they found there.

B. Poor Results. The mediocre results they produce don’t justify the money we spend on them

Scott Beauchamp 2015 (former Army infantryman and Iraq war veteran) 23 Jan 2015 WASHINGTON POST “Abolish West Point — and the other service academies, too” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-we-dont-need-west-point/2015/01/23/fa1e1488-a1ef-11e4-9f89-561284a573f8_story.html?utm_term=.84b179fdc307

The service academies — the U.S. Military Academy for the Army (West Point), the U.S. Naval Academy, the U.S. Air Force Academy and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy — promise to educate and mold future officers charged with leading the enlisted members of the military. But they are not the hallowed arbiters of quality promised by their myths. Their traditions mask bloated government money-sucks that consistently underperform. They are centers of nepotism that turn below-average students into average officers. They are indulgences that taxpayers, who fund them, can no longer afford. They’ve outlived their use, and it’s time to shut them down.

C. Military Failure. The lack of leadership and accountability taught at the academies leads to military failure

Prof. William J. Astore 2015 (retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, has taught at the Air Force Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School; currently teaches at Penn. College of Technology) 18 Aug 2015 “ How America’s Broken Service Academies Create a Broken Military” THE NATION (a “Phyrric” victory is one that costs so much that the winner wishes he had never fought it) https://www.thenation.com/article/how-americas-broken-service-academies-create-a-broken-military/

America’s military academies are supposed to be educating and developing leaders of character. If they’re not doing that, why have them? America’s senior military leaders are supposed to be winning wars, not losing them. (Please feel free to name one recent victory by the US military that hasn’t been of the Pyrrhic variety.) So why do we idolize them? And why do we fail to hold them accountable? These are more than rhetorical questions. They cut to the heart of an American culture that celebrates its military cadets as its finest young citizens , a culture that lauds its generals even as they fail to accept responsibility for wars that end not in victory but—well, come to think of it, they just never end.



http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/11/general-failure/309148/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/11/19/why-neoconservatives-should-love-west-point-even-more-than-they-do-now/

https://www.thenation.com/article/how-americas-broken-service-academies-create-a-broken-military/


https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-we-dont-need-west-point/2015/01/23/fa1e1488-a1ef-11e4-9f89-561284a573f8_story.html?utm_term=.84b179fdc307



http://www.salon.com/2015/01/05/lets_abolish_west_point_military_academies_serve_no_one_squander_millions_of_tax_dollars/



JUSTIFICATION 2. Less expensive alternatives

The academies cost 4 times as much as training an officer through a regular college ROTC program


The most compelling and obvious argument is the financial one. It officially costs about $205,000 to produce a West Point graduate, although a 2003 Government Accountability Office study put the price tag at more than $300,000; officers at the Air Force and Naval academies are minted for $322,000 and $275,000, respectively. According to at least one measurement, that’s about four times as much as it costs to produce an officer through the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, which trains officers-to-be while they attend civilian colleges.

JUSTIFICATION 3. Educational Quality

Officers coming from regular colleges get better educations, and the military would be better if they all did

Thomas E. Ricks 2009 (senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security) 19 Apr 2009 “Tom Ricks -- Why We Should Get Rid of West Point” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/16/AR2009041603483.html?tid=a_inl

This is no knock on the academies' graduates. They are crackerjack smart and dedicated to national service. They remind me of the best of the Ivy League, but too often they're getting community-college educations. Although West Point's history and social science departments provided much intellectual firepower in rethinking the U.S. approach to Iraq, most of West Point's faculty lacks doctorates. Why not send young people to more rigorous institutions on full scholarships, and then, upon graduation, give them a military education at a short-term military school? Not only do ROTC graduates make fine officers -- three of the last six chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff reached the military that way -- they also would be educated alongside future doctors, judges, teachers, executives, mayors and members of Congress. That would be good for both the military and the society it protects.

JUSTIFICATION 4. Better officers

Non-Academy officers are better educated and less cynical

Thomas E. Ricks 2009 (senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security) 19 Apr 2009 “Tom Ricks -- Why We Should Get Rid of West Point” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/16/AR2009041603483.html?tid=a_inl

After covering the U.S. military for nearly two decades, I've concluded that graduates of the service academies don't stand out compared to other officers. Yet producing them is more than twice as expensive as taking in graduates of civilian schools ($300,000 per West Point product vs. $130,000 for ROTC student). On top of the economic advantage, I've been told by some commanders that they prefer officers who come out of ROTC programs, because they tend to be better educated and less cynical about the military.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/16/AR2009041603483.html?tid=a_inl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/16/AR2009041603483.html?tid=a_inl

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0059/6242/files/tenchfrancisprose.pdf

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d031000.pdf





JUSTIFICATION 5. Militaristic Mindset

The Academies promote a militaristic mindset that is bad for our democracy

Prof. William J. Astore 2015 (retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, has taught at the Air Force Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School; currently teaches at Penn. College of Technology) 18 Aug 2015 “ How America’s Broken Service Academies Create a Broken Military” THE NATION https://www.thenation.com/article/how-americas-broken-service-academies-create-a-broken-military/

While the cadets are encouraged to over-identify with their particular academy and service branch, they’re also encouraged to self-identify as “ warriors ,” as, that is, an elite apart from and superior to the civilians they’re supposed to serve. That this country was founded on civilian control of the military may be given lip service, but in the age of the ascendant national security state, the deeper sentiments embedded in an academy education are ever more distant from a populace that plays next to no part in America’s wars . That the classic civilian-military nexus, which was supposed to serve and promote democracy, has turned out to have a few glitches in our time should surprise no one. After all, President Dwight Eisenhower warned us about what was coming back in 1961 . As Ike noticed, the way it was working—the way it still works today—is that senior officers in the military too often become tools of the armaments industry (his “military-industrial complex”) even as they identify far too closely with the parochial interests of their particular service branch. Add to this the distinctly twenty-first-century emphasis on being warriors , not citizen-soldiers, and you have the definition of a system of self- perpetuating and self-serving militarism rather than military service. To the extent that the military academies not only fail to curb this behavior but essentially encourage it, they are failing our democracy.



http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175404/

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174957

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-astore/dwight-eisenhower-memorial_b_1270232.html

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175314

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-astore/our-militarys-disturbing_b_664543.html


2A EVIDENCE: ABOLISH THE MILITARY ACADEMIES

2A EVIDENCE: ABOLISH MILITARY ACADEMIES

OPENING QUOTES / AFFIRMATIVE PHILOSOPHY

Service academies are all fake images of prestige with nothing behind them


But the hardest charging of the students are the most disappointed (I talk yearly to disillusioned Marine and SEAL selectees), and all count the days until graduation. The service academies are all Potemkin villages, facades with nothing behind them: they don’t teach morals, they don’t make better officers, and they cost you a bundle. Most fundamentally, they combine two incompatible goals: military obedience and the freedom to question offered by knowledge. This is a combustible mixture as students ask why things are as they are and are told sharply that this is the way things are, and are punished if they insist. One day the lid is going to blow.

SOURCE INDICTMENT

Military officials and Academy students: They have to make themselves look good, and students aren’t allowed to disagree


Who benefits from these strange historical holdovers? Not the taxpayers who fund them. The service academies are the vanity projects of the brass who went there. Their interest is in looking good (it’s good for their careers) and in keeping the tax dollars flowing. All official information taxpayers get about the service academies comes from the brass who run them and who use them as their private country clubs — at taxpayer expense. Military subordinates (which includes the students) are legally unable to offer conflicting views. The result is that the service academies are feel-good hype factories that operate with virtually no accountability and little oversight, the very definition of government bloat on autopilot.

Military brass will defend the academies, because it’s a cushy job and easy lifestyle


The brass retire there in great style, and frequently have their funerals there. (When a recent chief of Naval operations retired there, the students were forbidden from walking on the pathways for the whole day.) Those picked to return as administrators to USNA live in high-ceilinged Victorian houses complete with groundskeepers. The superintendent, a three-star admiral, has a mini-White House with white-coated waitstaff. It’s a great life for them, so of course they defend it.










INHERENCY

SQ academies incapable of reforming themselves

Prof. Bruce Fleming 2012 (professor of English at US Naval academy since 1987) 8 Oct 2012 CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION The Few, the Proud, the Infantilized http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Few-the-Proud-the/134830

Of course, the administrators don't like to face facts. Their position at the top of a military pecking order means that nobody tells them bad news. Besides, their interest is in doing their three to four years and moving on. Reforming the service academies is a job for Congress, goaded by taxpayers.

Academy change won’t happen from within

Naval Academy Professor Bruce Fleming 2010. (professor of English at US Naval academy since 1987) 20 May 2010 “The Academies’ March Toward Mediocrity” NEW YORK TIMES http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/opinion/21fleming.html

Change won’t happen from within. The short-term academy administrations want to keep the hype flowing, and tend to lack the big-picture thinking necessary to seeing the institution objectively. Rather, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and other civilians need to mount a full re-conception of the academies: deciding what do we do that’s wrong, what’s irrelevant and what deserves to be saved. Otherwise, my most promising students will continue to tell me, “Sir, this place shows you what not to do.”

Military is instinctively resistant to change

Andrew Tilghman 2016 (journalist) “At WestPoint, millennial cadets say rigid military career tracks are outdated” 26 Mar 2016 MILITARY TIMES http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/careers/2016/03/26/west-point-millenials-military-careers/82261372/

Yet the military is often instinctively resistant to change. Especially the senior-most leaders who, by definition, achieved success under the current rules. Carter's personnel office drew up a slate of ambitious reforms last summer. But that ran into stiff bureaucratic resistance. The Joint Chiefs of Staff recently debated the issue, but it remains unresolved.

SOLVENCY / ADVOCACY

Davy Crockett 1830. West Point is aristocratic, violates the rights of citizens by giving special privileges to the rich

Rep. Davy Crockett 1830 (congressman from Tennessee; yes, THAT Davy Crockett, with the coonskin cap, who died at the Alamo) 25 Feb 1830 Resolution to Abolish the Military Academy at West Point https://www.reddit.com/r/ArchivePorn/comments/39zqoi/a_page_from_representative_davy_crocketts/

Resolved that each and every institution Calculated at public expense and under the patronage and Sanction of the Government to grant in exclusive privileges except in Consideration of public Services is not only aristocratic but a down right invasion of the rights of the Citizen and a violation of the Civil Compact Called The Constitution. 4 > Resolved further that the military academy at West Point is Subject to the foregoing objections—in as much as those who are educated there receive their instruction at the public expense and are generally the Sons of the rich and influential who are able to educate their own Children—while the Sons of the poor for want of active friends are often neglected—or if educated even at the expence of their parents or by the liberality of their friends are Superseded in the Service by Cadets educated at the west point academy. Resolved therefore and for the foregoing reasons that Said institution should be abolished, and the appropriations annually made for its support be discontinued.



https://www.reddit.com/r/ArchivePorn/comments/39zqoi/a_page_from_representative_davy_crocketts/

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/careers/2016/03/26/west-point-millenials-military-careers/82261372/

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/careers/2016/03/26/west-point-millenials-military-careers/82261372/

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/opinion/21fleming.html

http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Few-the-Proud-the/134830



Successful example: Former British military academy Sandhurst. It shut down its college program and just does military training for graduates of other schools

Prof. Bruce Fleming 2012 (professor of English at US Naval academy since 1987) 8 Oct 2012 CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION The Few, the Proud, the Infantilized http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Few-the-Proud-the/134830

The European academy we're spiritually closest to is Britain's Sandhurst (U.S. armed forces are patterned on the British). Sandhurst has shown that a prestigious national service academy can change fundamentally without giving up its central role in history or defense: It's gone out of the business of undergraduate education entirely. Rather than giving a four-year college experience to undergraduates of tender age, trying to combine academics with military training as it once did and as we still do, Sandhurst now offers military classroom subjects only to students who have matriculated elsewhere. So the students are older, and the program doesn't compete with college.

Military academies’ budget = almost $1 billion

Bob Baskin 2016. (President of Peace Alliance; formerly CEO of Spotlight Analysis LLC, a cutting edge political micro-targeting and consulting firm; served in key staff positions in the U.S. Congress, and was a senior officer at the prestigious international marketing and consulting firm, Yankelovich. He has also taught in inner city public schools, been a public finance investment banker, corporate marketing officer, and small business owner. Ethical disclosure: article is undated but references events in 2016. The opening quote about the budget is quoted from Friends Committee on National Legislation report, Prevention is 60:1 Cost Effective, 2011, whose website is no longer functioning) http://peacealliance.org/2017-federal-budget-support-intl-peacebuilding-funding-sign-congressional-petition-today/

“The world spends just $1 on conflict prevention for every $1,885 it spends on military budgets. Here in the U.S., less than 2% of income tax goes to civilian foreign affairs agencies; meanwhile, 39% goes to the military. And though taxpayers provide almost $1 billion per year for military academies, they pay only about $40 million for the United States Institute of Peace — the only U.S. agency dedicated to conflict prevention and peacebuilding.“ The heartbreaking attacks in Brussels this week are evidence once again that we must take a stand for powerful peacebuilding measures when dealing with global conflict.

How much does it cost? ROTC officer training costs 25% of the academy and OCS costs 10%

Dr. Todd Davies 2011 (PhD psychology; Associate Director and Lecturer, Symbolic Systems Program, Stanford University) “Why Conservatives Should Oppose ROTC” 6 Feb 2011 https://web.stanford.edu/group/antiwar/conservatism-and-rotc.html



https://web.stanford.edu/group/antiwar/conservatism-and-rotc.html

http://peacealliance.org/2017-federal-budget-support-intl-peacebuilding-funding-sign-congressional-petition-today/

http://peacealliance.org/2017-federal-budget-support-intl-peacebuilding-funding-sign-congressional-petition-today/




JUSTIFICATIONS

Poor Results

Lack of accountability at the Academies leads to failure

Prof. William J. Astore 2015 (retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, has taught at the Air Force Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School; currently teaches at Penn. College of Technology) 18 Aug 2015 “ How America’s Broken Service Academies Create a Broken Military” THE NATION (brackets in original) https://www.thenation.com/article/how-americas-broken-service-academies-create-a-broken-military/

Authority without accountability means no one is responsible. And if no one is responsible, the system can keep chugging along, course largely unaltered, no matter what happens. This is exactly what it’s been doing for years now in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Can we connect this behavior to the faults of the service academies? Careerism. Parochialism. Technocratic tendencies. Elitism. A focus on image rather than on substance. Lots of busywork and far too much praise for our ascetic warrior-heroes, results be damned. A tendency to close ranks rather than take responsibility. Buck-passing, not bucking the system. The urge to get those golden slots on graduation and the desire for golden parachutes into a lucrative world of corporate boards and consultancies after “retirement,” not to speak of those glowing appearances as military experts on major TV and cable networks. By failing to hold military boots to the fire, we’ve largely avoided unpleasantness between the military and its civilian leadership, not to speak of the American public.

Education Quality

Educational quality at the academies is a joke

Prof. Jeff Dyche 2012 (served on active duty in the Navy for eight years and as a reservist for three. While at the Air Force Academy he was promoted to associate professor and honored with an “Outstanding Academy Educator” award. He was honorably discharged from the US Navy Reserves in 2010 and took an appointment at James Madison University) The US Air Force Academy: Elite Undergraduate College? AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS JOURNAL OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM http://www.aaup.org/sites/default/files/files/JAF/2012%20JAF/Dyche.pdf

What if the situation were reversed? I was once with a colleague of mine when he asked a group of cadets, “If college presidents around the country, most with little military experience, decided to form their own army, how good would that army be compared to the real army?” Cadets responded with laughter at the thought of how poorly disciplined and weak that unit would be. Then my friend asked, “What if a group of generals and colonels, most with little academic experience, decided to start their own college, how good would that school be compared to other colleges?” No laughter.

Students end up disillusioned and worse off because of stupid rules and hypocrisy


Instead of better officers, the academies produce burned-out midshipmen and cadets. They come to us thinking they’ve entered a military Camelot, and find a maze of petty rules with no visible future application. These rules are applied inconsistently by the administration, and tend to change when a new superintendent is appointed every few years. The students quickly see through assurances that “people die if you do X” (like, “leave mold on your shower curtain,” a favorite claim of one recent administrator). We’re a military Disneyland, beloved by tourists but disillusioning to the young people who came hoping to make a difference.




http://www.aaup.org/sites/default/files/files/JAF/2012%20JAF/Dyche.pdf

http://www.npr.org/2012/10/29/163185980/should-the-generals-get-fired-more-often

http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view&backgroundid=00310

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/us/20generals.html

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/12/26/defense_firms_lure_retired_generals/

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2012/11/21/11839/generals-no-longer-retire-vermont-they-lobby-contractors-washington

http://contraryperspective.com/2013/09/18/americas-ascetic-warrior-generals/



Hazing and indoctrination aren’t the signs of good education


As one former cadet put it: busywork and demanding rituals that sometime cross the line and become hazing are embraced in military education as a “rite of passage.” The idea “that we [cadets] suffered through something and prevailed is an immensely powerful psychological ‘badge’ which leads to pride (or arrogance) and confidence (or hubris).” Add up the indoctrination and the training, the busywork in classrooms and the desire to excel in big-time collegiate sports, and what you tend to graduate is a certain number of hyper-motivated true believers and a mass of go-along cynics—young men and women who have learned to subsume their doubts and misgivings, even as they trim their sails in the direction of the prevailing winds.

Air Force Academy doesn’t even realize how poorly qualified their faculty are compared to other colleges

Prof. Jeff Dyche 2012 (served on active duty in the Navy for eight years and as a reservist for three. While at the Air Force Academy he was promoted to associate professor and honored with an “Outstanding Academy Educator” award. He was honorably discharged from the US Navy Reserves in 2010 and took an appointment at James Madison University) The US Air Force Academy: Elite Undergraduate College? AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS JOURNAL OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM http://www.aaup.org/sites/default/files/files/JAF/2012%20JAF/Dyche.pdf

Nevertheless, this is an academic institution first, right? This is what the AFA tells cadets’ parents. It is certainly what the AFA told the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools when the academy underwent accreditation review in 2008. Shouldn’t the leaders be better educated or know more about academia before taking the helm of such an influential institution? This can and does backfire for the academy. For example, the dean used to brag openly about how 55 percent of the faculty have terminal degrees, as though that were a high percentage. She didn’t even know that such a low percentage should be something to be embarrassed about, and that many community colleges exceed it.

A/T “Highly Selective”

A lot of selections are nepotism to connected families or big donors


Some arguments in favor of the service academies cite the rigorous selection process. But we really have no idea how elite their students are. Admittance requires a nomination from a member of Congress, the vice president, a secretary of the respective military branch or other high-level officials. These nominations are doled out in a process with vague guidelines and nonspecific criteria, making political patronage inevitable. The academies admit recruits according to Title 10, U.S. Code, Section 6954 — which, for guidance, merely says how many cadets can be admitted, who can nominate them and where they can come from. According to an investigation by USA Today, nepotism often governs the nominations, with many going to well-connected families or big-name donors.



http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/09/15/service-academies-congress-nomination-army-navy/15452669/

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/6954




http://www.aaup.org/sites/default/files/files/JAF/2012%20JAF/Dyche.pdf

http://gazette.com/article/146671



There are no universal standards or ethical guidelines. But campaign contributions can help!

USA TODAY 2014. (journalists Gregory Korte and Fredreka Schouten) 15 Sept 2014 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/09/15/service-academies-congress-nomination-army-navy/15452669/

There are no universal standards or ethical guidelines governing nominations, and each congressional office has its own process and criteria for awarding them. Districts can vary widely in the number of students seeking a nomination, while each member is allowed the same number of nominations. The result: Where a candidate lives can have as much effect on a future military career as grades, test scores or extracurricular activities. • Some nominations go to children of well-connected families, friends and campaign contributors. All told, representatives and senators have accepted more than $171,000 in campaign contributions from the families of students they've nominated to military service academies over the past two years, according to an analysis of nominations and campaign finance data.

Not highly selective when you consider football and racial quotas


The academies are putting your tax dollars to good use—if you like football. We’re taxpayer-supported Division I football schools (now Navy has joined the Big East) where military slots are given to low-scoring recruits. That’s how they keep conservatives happy. To keep liberals happy, we practice admissions based on racial factors so stark as to seem unconstitutional. The goal in such admissions is defense, by the way, not the usual justification for race-conscious admissions that students learn from diversity. The idea at the service academies is that everybody is the same—and nothing is said about classroom interaction.

Officer Quality

Everyone says academy officers are better. Except, they’re not, and the rest of the military knows it.


Service academy officers aren’t better—but almost invariably, they’re convinced they are: the administrators assure midshipmen repeatedly that they are “the best and the brightest” and are “held to a higher standard.” So it’s not coincidence that service academy officers have a negative reputation in the military as smug ring-knockers. They didn’t have to work their way through college.







https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/09/15/service-academies-congress-nomination-army-navy/15452669/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/09/15/service-academies-congress-nomination-army-navy/15452669/


Other officers are just as good as Academy officers


No evidence shows that officers who attended civilian colleges, or any one of the U.S. Senior Military Colleges such as the Citadel, are lesser leaders than their service-academy colleagues. Tom Ricks, a Pulitzer Prize-winning defense journalist, put it succinctly: “After covering the U.S. military for nearly two decades, I’ve concluded that graduates of the service academies don’t stand out compared to other officers.” After all, perhaps the most preeminent Army leader in recent times, Colin Powell, is a product of the ROTC, not West Point. This parity in skill has been slowly expressing itself in a rising number of promotions for ROTC officers over the past few decades. Thirty years ago, most Army three-star generals had graduated from West Point. As of 1997 (the last year for which data is available), only a third had. A study of naval officer ascension using data from 2003 concluded that, on average, there were no real differences in promotion rates between Naval Academy officers and ROTC officers.

Goals of duty and leadership are not achieved


The mission of the Naval Academy is “to develop midshipmen morally, mentally and physically and to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, honor, and loyalty,” How inspiring these ideals are! There’s one problem. Nobody ever asks if we achieve these goals. I know after 28 years that we don’t.

A/T “High ideals” – Turn: Hypocrisy of tolerating misbehavior in the Academies lowers their ideals


Because the academies are considered prestige institutions as well as symbols of rectitude and their reputations are always at stake, few risks are taken. Misconduct, when it occurs, is frequently hushed up “for the good of the Academy.” Scandals involving cheating, sexual assaults, and religious discrimination have often been made worse by not being dealt with openly and honestly. Cadets know this, which is another reason many emerge from their education as cynics when it comes to the high ideals the academies are supposed to instill.



http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/03/airforce.religion/

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/20/16039249-reported-sex-assaults-leap-23-percent-at-us-military-academies?lite

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/06/07/12107246-78-air-force-academy-cadets-accused-of-cheating-on-math-test?lite




http://www.researchgate.net/publication/235183086_An_Analysis_of_Naval_Officer_Accession_Programs

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19970821&slug=2555943

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/16/AR2009041603483.html





Militarism

Militarism threatens our democratic institutions and trashes the Founders’ vision of America

Dr. Robert L. Ivie 2012 (PhD; professor of Rhetoric and Public Culture in the Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University) “Democracy and Militarism” Chapter 6 in THE MARKETING OF WAR IN THE AGE OF NEO-MILITARISM https://books.google.com/books?id=_KA95MVXdNkC&pg=PA2009-IA2&lpg=PA2009-IA2&dq=military+academies+militarism+democracy&source=bl&ots=95QErgM0bz&sig=Bjyh6F3jcNYNhnrOcmwgx1Z04YU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwij0MiDme3UAhVLNSYKHX51CzE4ChDoAQgmMAE#v=onepage&q=military%20academies%20militarism%20democracy&f=false

Sexual harassment

On Campus. Sexual harassment on campus is on the rise at US military academies.

RT NEWS 2017. “Not just nude photos: Sexual assault on the rise at West Point, Annapolis military academies” 16 March 2017 https://www.rt.com/usa/380916-military-academies-sexual-assault/

Official reports of sexual assault rose at two of the three US military academies, while an anonymous survey of students suggested that unwanted sexual contact is also on the rise, according to new Pentagon data. During the last academic year, which ran from June 1, 2015 to May 31, 2016, there were 26 reported sexual assaults at the US Military Academy at West Point in New York, 28 at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and 32 at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

After graduating: Academy graduates have high rates of sexual harassment in the military. But as long as the football team is funded, that’s OK…


Do we teach them “character” as we claim we do? Apparently not. In fact about a third of the commanding officers removed in 2012 for malfeasance—record numbers for Navy—were Academy graduates. Read the newspapers for ongoing scandals (sexual assault, cheating) involving current service academy students, all of which the brass (whose prestige depends on all good news all the time) try to squash: these were merely a few bad apples, we hear, indicative of nothing. Keep the tax dollars for the football team flowing.





https://www.rt.com/usa/380916-military-academies-sexual-assault/

https://books.google.com/books?id=_KA95MVXdNkC&pg=PA2009-IA2&lpg=PA2009-IA2&dq=military+academies+militarism+democracy&source=bl&ots=95QErgM0bz&sig=Bjyh6F3jcNYNhnrOcmwgx1Z04YU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwij0MiDme3UAhVLNSYKHX51CzE4ChDoAQgmMAE#v=onepage&q=military%20academies%20militarism%20democracy&f=false




DISAVANTAGE RESPONSES

A/T “Won’t have enough officers” – Only 20% come from Academies and we can get them from ROTC much cheaper


The service academies are holdovers from the 19th century, when they were virtually the only avenue for producing an officer corps for the nation’s military and when such top-down institutions were taken for granted. But the world has changed, which the academies don’t seem to have noticed, or to have drawn any conclusions from. With the rise after World War II of the Reserve Officer Training Corps programs at universities around the country, the academies now produce 20 percent or less of the officers in each service, at an average cost to taxpayers of nearly half a million dollars per student, more than four times what an R.O.T.C.-trained officer costs.




WORKS CITED: ABOLISH THE MILITARY ACADEMIES


1. BUSINESS INSIDER 2017 (journalist Abby Jackson) 22 Apr 2017 “There are 5 elite US service academies that prepare the next generation of the American military” http://www.businessinsider.com/us-military-service-academies-2017-4

2. Naval Academy Professor Bruce Fleming 2015 . (professor of English at US Naval academy since 1987) 5 Jan 2015 “Let’s abolish West Point: Military academies serve no one, squander millions of tax dollars” http://www.salon.com/2015/01/05/lets_abolish_west_point_military_academies_serve_no_one_squander_millions_of_tax_dollars/

3. Scott Beauchamp 2015 (former Army infantryman and Iraq war veteran) 23 Jan 2015 WASHINGTON POST “Abolish West Point — and the other service academies, too” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-we-dont-need-west-point/2015/01/23/fa1e1488-a1ef-11e4-9f89-561284a573f8_story.html?utm_term=.84b179fdc307

4. Prof. William J. Astore 2015 (retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, has taught at the Air Force Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School; currently teaches at Penn. College of Technology) 18 Aug 2015 “ How America’s Broken Service Academies Create a Broken Military” THE NATION (a “Phyrric” victory is one that costs so much that the winner wishes he had never fought it) https://www.thenation.com/article/how-americas-broken-service-academies-create-a-broken-military/

5. Thomas E. Ricks 2009 (senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security) 19 Apr 2009 “Tom Ricks -- Why We Should Get Rid of West Point” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/16/AR2009041603483.html?tid=a_inl

6. Prof. Bruce Fleming 2012 (professor of English at US Naval academy since 1987) 8 Oct 2012 CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION The Few, the Proud, the Infantilized http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Few-the-Proud-the/134830

7. Naval Academy Professor Bruce Fleming 2010. (professor of English at US Naval academy since 1987) 20 May 2010 “The Academies’ March Toward Mediocrity” NEW YORK TIMES http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/opinion/21fleming.html

8. Andrew Tilghman 2016 (journalist) “At WestPoint, millennial cadets say rigid military career tracks are outdated” 26 Mar 2016 MILITARY TIMES http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/careers/2016/03/26/west-point-millenials-military-careers/82261372/




9. Rep. Davy Crockett 1830 (congressman from Tennessee; yes, THAT Davy Crockett, with the coonskin cap, who died at the Alamo) 25 Feb 1830 Resolution to Abolish the Military Academy at West Point https://www.reddit.com/r/ArchivePorn/comments/39zqoi/a_page_from_representative_davy_crocketts/

10. Bob Baskin 2016. (President of Peace Alliance; formerly CEO of Spotlight Analysis LLC, a cutting edge political micro-targeting and consulting firm; served in key staff positions in the U.S. Congress, and was a senior officer at the prestigious international marketing and consulting firm, Yankelovich. He has also taught in inner city public schools, been a public finance investment banker, corporate marketing officer, and small business owner. Ethical disclosure: article is undated but references events in 2016. The opening quote about the budget is quoted from Friends Committee on National Legislation report, Prevention is 60:1 Cost Effective, 2011, whose website is no longer functioning) http://peacealliance.org/2017-federal-budget-support-intl-peacebuilding-funding-sign-congressional-petition-today/

11. Dr. Todd Davies 2011 (PhD psychology; Associate Director and Lecturer, Symbolic Systems Program, Stanford University) “Why Conservatives Should Oppose ROTC” 6 Feb 2011 https://web.stanford.edu/group/antiwar/conservatism-and-rotc.html

12. Prof. Jeff Dyche 2012 (served on active duty in the Navy for eight years and as a reservist for three. While at the Air Force Academy he was promoted to associate professor and honored with an “Outstanding Academy Educator” award. He was honorably discharged from the US Navy Reserves in 2010 and took an appointment at James Madison University) The US Air Force Academy: Elite Undergraduate College? AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS JOURNAL OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM http://www.aaup.org/sites/default/files/files/JAF/2012%20JAF/Dyche.pdf

13. USA TODAY 2014 . (journalists Gregory Korte and Fredreka Schouten) 15 Sept 2014 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/09/15/service-academies-congress-nomination-army-navy/15452669/

14. Dr. Robert L. Ivie 2012 (PhD; professor of Rhetoric and Public Culture in the Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University) “Democracy and Militarism” Chapter 6 in THE MARKETING OF WAR IN THE AGE OF NEO-MILITARISM https://books.google.com/books?id=_KA95MVXdNkC&pg=PA2009-IA2&lpg=PA2009-IA2&dq=military+academies+militarism+democracy&source=bl&ots=95QErgM0bz&sig=Bjyh6F3jcNYNhnrOcmwgx1Z04YU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwij0MiDme3UAhVLNSYKHX51CzE4ChDoAQgmMAE#v=onepage&q=military%20academies%20militarism%20democracy&f=false

15. RT NEWS 2017 . “Not just nude photos: Sexual assault on the rise at West Point, Annapolis military academies” 16 March 2017 https://www.rt.com/usa/380916-military-academies-sexual-assault/



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