THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2010


Why ROTC shouldn’t be on campus


BY COLMANMCCARTHY N


ow that asking and telling has ceased to be problematic in mili- tary circles,ROTChas resurfaced


as a national issue: Will universities such as Harvard, Yale and other Ivy League schools be opened to Reserve Officers’ Training Corps since colleges can no longer can argue that the mili- tary isbiasedagainst gays andtherefore notwelcome? The debate reminds me of an inter-


viewI conductedoverparents’weekend at theUniversity ofNotreDame in1989. I sat down with Theodore Hesburgh, the priest who had retired two years earlier after serving 35 years as the university’s president. Graciously, he invited me to lunch at the campus inn. During our discussion, he took modest pride at having raised more than a billion dollars for Notre Dame, and expressed similar feelings about the university’s ROTC program.More than 700 student-cadets were in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Few uni- versities, public or private, had a larger percentage of students inuniformthen. The school could have been renamed FortHesburgh. When I suggested that Notre Dame’s


hosting of ROTC was a large negative amongthe school’smanypositives,Hes- burgh disagreed. Notre Dame was a modelofpatriotism,he said,by training future officers who were churchgoers, who had taken courses in ethics, and who loved God and country. Notre Dame’s ROTC program was a way to “Christianize the military,” he stated firmly. I asked if he actually believed there


could be a Christianmethod of slaugh- tering people in combat, or a Christian way of firebombing cities, or a way to kill civilians inthenameof Jesus.Didhe think that if enoughNotreDame gradu- ates became soldiers that the military would eventually embrace Christ’s teaching of loving one’s enemies? The interviewquickly slid downhill. These days, the academic senates of


the Ivies and other schools areno doubt pondering the return of military re- cruiters to their campuses.Meanwhile, the Pentagon, which oversees ROTC programs onmore than 300 campuses, has to be asking if itwants to expand to the elite campuses, where old antipa- thies are remembered on both sides. It should not be forgotten that


schools have legitimate and moral rea- sons for keeping the military at bay, regardless of the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” They can stand with those who for reasons of conscience reject military solutions to conflicts. They can stand with Martin Luther


King Jr. and his view of America’s penchant for war-making: “This mad- ness must cease,” he said from a pulpit in April 1967. Even well short of the pacifist positions, they can argue the impracticalityofmaintaining amilitary that has helped drive this country into record depths of debt. The defense budget has more than doubled since 2000, to over $700 billion. They can align themselves with colleges such as Hobart, Earlham, Goshen, Guilford, Hampshire, George Fox and a long list of others that teach alternatives to violence. Serve your country after col- lege, these schools say, but consider the PeaceCorpsaswellas theMarineCorps. Will the Ivies have the courage for


such stands? I’m doubtful. Only one of the eight Ivy League schools — Cornell —offers adegree inpeace studies.Their pride in running programs in women’s studies, black studies, and gay and lesbian studies is well-founded, but schools have small claims to greatness so long as the study ofpeace isnot equal to the otherdepartmentswhenit comes to size and funding. AtNotreDame, onthat 1989visit and


several following, I learned that the ROTC academics were laughably weak. They were softie courses. The many students I interviewed were candid about their reasons for signing up: free tuition and monthly stipends, plus the guarantee of a job in the military after college. With some exceptions, they weremainly fromfamilies that couldn’t afford ever-rising college tabs. To oppose ROTC, as I have since my


college days in the 1960s, when my school enticed too many of my class- mates into joining, is not to be anti-sol- dier. I admire those who join armies, whether America’s or the Taliban’s: for their discipline, for their loyalty to their buddies andtotheirprinciples, for their sacrifices to be away from home. In recent years, I’ve had several Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans in my college classes. If only the peace move- ment were as populated by people of such resolve and daring. ROTC and its warrior ethic taint the


intellectual purity of a school, if by puritywemean trying to rise above the foul idea that nations can kill and destroy their way to peace. If a school such as Harvard does sell out to the military, let it at least behonest and add a sign at its Cambridge front portal: Harvard, a Pentagon Annex.


ColmanMcCarthy, a former Post columnist, directs the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington and teaches courses on nonviolence at four area universities and two high schools.


GLEB GARANICH/REUTERS


Ariot policeman chases an opposition protester during a rally inMinsk after the reelection this month of Belarusan President Alexander Lukashenko.


No holiday from tyrants Abusive acts during the seasonal lull deserve a response BY CARL GERSHMAN W


ashingtonandother capitals go into semi-hibernation during the holiday season, with many


officials on leave and offices on lighter schedules.Thatmakes itconvenient for autocratic regimes to commit offensive actions this time of year, on the as- sumption that fewer people will be watching. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan during the holiday break in 1979. It was on Christmas Day last year that China sentenced Liu Xiaobo, winnerof the2010NobelPeacePrize, to 11 years in prison. This holiday season, too, has been


replete with provocative actions that autocrats hope might pass unnoticed. The rigged conviction of jailedRussian entrepreneur and dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky had been scheduled for Dec. 15; it was postponed until Dec. 27 in an effort, some have suggested, to avoid complicating the U.S. Senate’s ratification of the New START treaty. That is one reason. But speaking out- side the courtroomafter the postpone- mentwas announced,Marina Khodor- kovskaya, the defendant’s mother, called the delay “an attempt to avoid public attention. Too many people are interested in this case. This is the usual thing they do.” In neighboring Belarus, the regime


of Alexander Lukashenko carried out the most sweeping and brutal crack- down on democratic oppositionists in Europe sincemartial law was declared inPolandin1981.Calling thisdisplayof thuggery “an extraordinary day for democracy,” Venezuela’s strongman, HugoChavez,meanwhileusedtheholi- dayperiodtoassumedecreepowers for the next 18 months and ram through the National Assembly laws imposing severe controls on the Internet, tele- communications and nongovernmen- tal organizations. That autocrats see the need to cloak


their repressive measures in the holi- day lull suggests that their appearance of invulnerability might be deceptive. They care about the international reac- tion precisely because they fear it might encourage domestic opponents to challenge their authority, which is far fromabsolute. The Khodorkovsky verdict has cer-


tainly allowed Vladimir Putin to show that he holds the real power in Russia, not President Dmitry Medvedev, who has warned against “legal nihilism.” But Putin has also lost the support of many Russian political elites, who de- spair that his likely return to the presi- dency will close the door on Russia’s becoming amodern state and usher in a Brezhnev-like period of stagnation and continued economic and societal decay. Lukashenko’s crackdown sought to preempt a popular challenge to the


GEORGEF.WILL


King Coal: Reigning in China C


owlitz County in Washington state is across the Columbia River from Portland, Ore., which promotes


mass transit and urban density and is a green reproach to the rest of us. Recently, Cowlitz did something that might make Portland wonder whether shrinking its carbon footprint matters. Cowlitz ap- proved construction of a coal export terminal from which millions of tons of U.S. coal could be shipped toAsia annual- ly.


Both Oregon andWashington are cur-


tailing the coal-fired generation of elec- tricity, but the future looks to greens as black as coal. The future looks a lot like the past. Historian William Rosen (who wrote


“The Most Powerful Idea in the World,” about the invention of the steam engine) says coal was Europe’s answer to the 12th-century “wood crisis,” when Chris- tians leveled much forestation to destroy sanctuaries for pagan worship and to open up farmland. Population increase meant more wooden carts, houses and ships, so wood became an expensive way to heat dwellings or cook. By 1230, Eng- land had felled so many trees it was importing most of its timber and was


turning to coal. “It was not until the 1600s,” Rosen


writes, “that English miners found their way down to the level of the water table and started needing a means to get at the coal below it.” In time, steam engines were invented to pump out water and lift out coal. The engines were fired by coal. Today, about half of America’s and the


world’s electricity is generated by coal, the substance that, since it fueled the Industrial Revolution, has been a crucial source of energy. Over the past eight years, it has been the world’s fastest- growing source of fuel. The New York Times recently reported (“Booming Chi- na Is Buying Up World’s Coal,” Nov. 22) about China’s ravenous appetite for coal, which is one reason coal’s price has doubled in five years. Half of the 6 billion tons of coal burned


globally each year is burned in China. A spokesman for the Sierra Club, which in recent years has helped to block construc- tion of 139 proposed coal-fired plants in America, says, “This is undermining ev- erything we’ve accomplished.” America, sayenvironmentalists, is exporting global warming. Can something really be exported if it


results of the Dec. 19 presidential elec- tion. Most analyses and observer re- ports did not give him a victory in the first round. His announcement that there would be no more “democratic games”was actually an admission that he feared exposing himself to a humili- ating second-round challenge and the risk of electoral defeat. His brief flirta- tion with democratic Europe has end- ed, but tying himself to a declining Russia will only deepen popular dis- content. Chavez’s diminishing support was


demonstrated last Septemberwhen he lost the popular vote in parliamentary elections. The new powers he has de- creed will allow him to bypass parlia- ment, where the opposition holds 40 percent of seats, but the causes of his declining popularity remain unad- dressed. Reasons for his slide include Venezuela’s increasing poverty, rising inflation, a catastrophic crime rate and the spreading perception that his rule is corrupt and abusive.With presiden- tial elections set for 2012, support for the opposition is likely to continue growing. Crafting an effective response to


these actsof repressionshouldbehigh on the agenda of the president and congressional leaders when they re- turn to Washington. The administra- tion has appropriately criticized the Khodorkovsky verdict, but if resen- tencing himto prison on trumped-up charges crosses what some adminis- trationofficialshavesaidisa“redline,” then a stronger response is called for — such as denying visas to those responsible forKhodorkovsky’s prose- cution and freezing their foreign ac- counts. On Belarus, the administration can


fashion a tough response with the EuropeanUnion.Theforeignministers of four E.U. member states said last week that Europe “will not stand indif- ferent to gross violations” of human rights and democracy “in its own part of theworld.” Finally, the real scandal on Venezue-


la has been the silence of theOrganiza- tion of American States (OAS) and its secretary general, JoseMiguel Insulza. TheOAShas taken“nosideinthebattle between tyranny and democracy,” Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the incoming chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said lastweek. The admin- istration should work with her to get the regionalbody toact forcefullyonits ownDemocratic Charter. Autocrats using the holiday season


to tighten their hold on power should receive a stiff New Year’smessage that theyare indeedbeingwatchedandthat their abuse will meet with a firm re- sponse.


Thewriter is president of theNational Endowment forDemocracy, a private, congressionally supported institution.


KLMNO


EZ RE


A15 E.J.DIONNEJR.


When will liberals learn? W


as 2010 American liberalism’s Waterloo?Howarewe to square the achievement of so many


goals that have long been on progressive wish lists with the resounding defeat sufferedby supporters of thesemeasures in November? Let’s beginwithwhat is amost painful


fact for liberals: Conservatism, a doc- trine that seemedmoribund on election night in 2008, enjoyed a far more rapid comeback than all liberals and even most conservatives anticipated. More than that, the current brand of


conservatism is far more zealous than the political disposition of eitherRonald Reagan or George W. Bush. Barry Gold- waterwent down to a thunderous defeat in 1964 after he declared that “extrem- ism in the defense of liberty is no vice.” Thatmight aswell be theworking slogan of the Tea Partymovement. The energy in our politics has shifted


rightward with an abruptness that was inconceivable in the final weeks of the 2008 campaign, when Barack Obama could call a rally and count on tens of thousands to materialize almost at an instant. If there is one thing the ObamaWhite


House most underestimates, it is the dispiritedmood of its troops. This is not just about “the left” but, more impor- tant, about Obama’s broader rank-and- file,who expected that hewould usher in more change, enjoy more success in confronting his Republican opponents and prove more skilled in shifting the nation’s political dialogue in a progres- sive direction. For the president’s loyalists, of course,


this indictment is profoundly unfair. He inherited a mess at home and abroad. The economic downturn began on Bush’s watch, but its bitter fruits were harvested after Obama took office. By contrast, Franklin Roosevelt took power after Herbert Hoover had presided over three of the most miserable years in American economic history. Blame was firmly fixed on Hoover by the time FDR showed up with his jaunty smile and contagious optimism. And, yes, there is the small issue of


Obama’s real achievements, the health- care law, above all. If insuring 32million more Americans is not an enormous social reform, then nothing can be said to count as change. The now well-re- hearsed list of additional accomplish- ments — from Wall Street and student- loan reform to the end of “don’t ask, don’t tell” to the simple fact that the


economy’s catastrophic slide was halted and reversed — would, in the abstract, do any administration proud. What, then, can Obama and his inter-


mittently discouraged allies dowith this peculiar blend of triumphs and set- backs? For starters, theymust restore a func-


tional relationship between the White House and its sometimes-friends, some- times-critics on the left. Too often, the White House has been caught whining about its progressive critics. The presi- dent’s aides act as if whatever Obama happens to decide is the only sensible and realistic thing to do. For the left to ask Obama to be bolder in testing the limits of thepossiblemeans it isdoing its job of pushing the president to domore, and to do it faster. Conservatives have mastered this approach.Why can’t liber- als do the same? But too often progressives have spent


more time complaining about what wasn’t done than in finding ways to build onwhat has been achieved. It took decades to complete the modern Social Security system and years to move from tepid to robust civil rights laws and from modest to comprehensive environmen- tal regulation. Impatience is indispens- able to getting reform started; patience is essential to seeing its promise ful- filled. Andboththe liberals andObamaneed


to escape the bubbles of legislative and narrowly ideological politics and re-en- gage the country on what can only be called a spiritual level. Modern Ameri- can liberalism is not some abstract and alien creed. At its best, it marries a practical, get-things-done approach to government with a devotion to fairness, justice and compassion. These senti- ments are grounded in the nation’s religious traditions and also in our com- mitment to community-building that Alexis de Tocqueville so appreciated. Conservatives talk somuch about first


principles that they seem to forget how difficult it is to govern effectively. Liber- als talk somuch about specific programs that they forget how much citizens care about the values that undergird those programs and the moral choices that nurture those values. In 2010, American liberals should


have been cured of any overconfidence. Now, they and the president need to rekindle the hope that this year will be most rememberednot for thedefeatsbut for the first steps taken down a more promising road.


POST PARTISAN


Excerpts fromThe Post’s opinion blog, updated daily at washingtonpost.com/postpartisan


RICHARDCOHEN


The truth about Michael Vick


The commentary about President


Obama’s call to theownerof the Philadel- phia Eagles regarding that adjudicated dog killerMichael Vick has now reached an apogee of stupidity that strongly suggests too many otherwise smart peo- ple have lost their ability to reason. Obama, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie re- counted, said, “ ‘So many people who serve timeneverget a fairsecondchance.’ He said, ‘It’s never a level playing field for prisoners when they get out of jail.’ And he was happy that we did something on such a national stage that showed our faith in giving someone a second chance after such a major downfall.” It helps, I think, that Vick has com-


pleted 63.2 percent of hisNFLpasses and has 20 touchdowns. He is not your average felon. And, yet, that is the comparison that’s


made. You would think from the com- mentary that Vick was some poor kid who got caught swiping something so he could get food to eat. You would think that he was anything other than an immensely gifted and rich professional


athlete who got a $37 million signing bonus and had endorsement deals from Nike, Coca-Cola, Kraft and others. Vick staged dog fights and killed dogs


not because he had to but because he chose to.He’s a thug. Dog-fightingwasVick’shobby.Hehad


beenwarnedabout it.Hisownfatherhad told him to stop.He persisted because, as with many great athletes, he was never held accountable. A nation of jock-sniff- ers always looks away when a great athlete does something wrong. Nothing is as important as winning—weallknow that—and Vick was and is a winner. The sanctimony regarding this dog


killer is sickening. He was wantonly cruel, not only pitting dogs against one another but alsodrowningpoorperform- ers.Didn’t heknowthiswascruel?Didn’t he know wounded dogs were in pain? Is he so stupid he didn’t notice the blood, the torn skin? Now, though, Vick has punched all the


ticketsonthe road to rehabilitation.He is contrite.He loves pooches.How much of this is genuine and how much is synthet- ic I leave to you. But I’ll say this: Vick got a second chance not because he deserves it but because he can play football.This is the lesson we can all take from this sorry episode. It’s one thing to be sorry. It’s much better to hit your man in the end zone.


supposedly affects the entire planet?Nev- er mind. America has partners in this crime against nature, if such it is. One Australiancompany proposes to build the Cowlitz facility; another has signed a $60 billion contract to supply Chinese power plants with Australian coal. The Times says ships — all burning


hydrocarbons — hauled about 690 mil- lion tons of thermal coal this year, up from 385 million in 2001. China, which imported about 150 million tons this year, was a net exporter of coal until 2009, sending abroad its low-grade coal and importing higher-grade, low-sulfur coal from, for example, the Powder River Basin ofWyoming andMontana. Because much of China’s enormous coal reserves is inland, far from coastal factories, it is sometimes more economical to import American and Australian coal. Writing in the Atlantic on China’s


appetite for coal and possible aptitude for using the old fuel in new, cleaner ways, James Fallows quotes a Chinese official saying that the country’s transportation system is the only serious limit on how fast power companies increase their use of coal. One reason China is building light-rail systems is to get passenger


traffic out of the way of coal trains. Fallows reports that 15 years from now


China expects that350million people will be living in cities that do not exist yet. This will requireaddingtoChina’s electri- cal system a capacity almost as large as America’s current capacity. The United States, China, Russia and India have 40 percent of the world’s population and 60 percent of its coal. A climate scientist told Fallows that


stabilizing the carbon-dioxide concentra- tion in the atmosphere would require the world to reduce its emissions to Kenya’s level — for America, a 96 percent reduc- tion.Nations withhundredsof millions of people in poverty would, Fallows says, have to “forgo the energy-intensive path toward wealth that the United States has traveled for so many years.” In his new political science treatise


(“Don’t Vote — It Just Encourages the Bastards”), P.J. O’Rourke says, “There are 1.3 billion people in China, and they all want a Buick.” So “go tell 1.3 billion Chinese they can never have a Buick.” If the future belongs to electric cars, those in China may run on energy currently stored beneathWyoming andMontana. georgewill@washpost.com


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