Cheap Talk?

By Cheryl Miller
Published January 27, 2011 4:15pm ET
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Cheap Talk?
Over at CNAS, Andrew Exum has a somewhat different take on President Obama’s ROTC shout-out in the State of the Union speech. He writes: there is one huge problem with this. It’s easy to demonize the “elite” universities for not having more ROTC programs, but the reality is that the U.S. military has been the one most […]

Over at CNAS, Andrew Exum has a somewhat different take on President Obama’s ROTC shout-out in the State of the Union speech. He writes:

there is one huge problem with this. It’s easy to demonize the “elite” universities for not having more ROTC programs, but the reality is that the U.S. military has been the one most responsible for divesting from ROTC programs in the northeastern United States. It’s hardly the fault of Columbia University that the U.S. Army has only two ROTC programs to serve the eight million residents and 605,000 university students of New York City. And it’s not the University of Chicago’s fault that the entire city of Chicago has one ROTC program while the state of Alabama has ten. The U.S. military made a conscious decision to cut costs by recruiting and training officers where people were more likely to volunteer.  

Andrew is right: It takes two to tango. The military has drawn down its ROTC programs in the Northeast and urban areas largely as a cost-cutting measure, and for that, its civilian leadership shares just as much, if not more, responsibility. If President Obama (and Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen) is serious about restoring ROTC’s geographic and cultural balance, he will have to be willing to advocate for — and authorize — the necessary resources. Otherwise, President Obama’s support will be nothing more than cheap talk. 

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