To the Editor:
Many commentators have accused Peter Makhlouf’s ’16 polemic opinion piece “ROTC: Return of the criminals” of being logically unsound and overly generalized. However, a real concern about the piece is the lack of formal reasoning for an anti-war ethos on campus. Being a pacifist is not a feather in the cap for liberal hipsters. It is a refusal to allow the state to abstract violence committed against other people and nations. It is a belief that no human has the right to cause another human being pain or suffering.
The engaged, anti-war members of the community ought to welcome ROTC members, for they are students like everyone else here, excited to engage in the pursuit of knowledge. But despite the integrated sense of community, ROTC members must be willing to engage with an extreme irreverence toward the justification of war that I and many other pacifists share. Walking through Faunce House in army fatigues does not immediately elevate the wearer from the scholastic rabble nor should the wearer expect absolute respect for the military institution they represent.
Joey DiZoglio ’15
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