Dear Editor,

The protest the organization School of the Americas Watch is holding at Fort Benning, Ga., is not only an insult to the hundreds of soldiers who attend the school each year (including a couple of current Loyola and Tulane students), but also to the students who come to this school and pay tuition and fees just like everyone else, only to see the money they pay go toward left-wing, partisan events such as this.

As The Maroon pointed out, over 60,000 students have graduated from Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.

The overwhelming majority have returned to their home countries and used the vital skills they learned to promote a culture of responsibility and organization in their military and policing agencies.

There exists no proof at all that WHINSEC influenced the few notorious graduates of the school to commit any of the crimes they did.

If the crimes of a few graduates are reason enough to close the school, why stop there? Let’s protest the seminaries where the priests who have committed sex crimes against children were taught; let’s protest outside of a local Democratic office or Obama campaign office because our Jesuit ideals say abortion is bad; lets protest outside of The Boot, Friar Tucks and daiquiri shops because people who drink and then drive kill others on the road.

Let’s not forget what this organization truly stands for. According to their mission statement, WHINSEC teaches “human rights, the rule of law, due process, civilian control of the military and the role of the military in a democratic society.”

These are all values that are held high in American society.

I encourage anyone who was thinking about joining this protest to think twice. Your self-respect and dignity as a free American are put on the line when you protest the very ideals you live by.

Sincerely,
Christopher A.D. Bournes
political science sophomore
[email protected]