Dear George,

It would be a pity to bar military recruitment from campus when it affords an opportunity to place better educated recruits into the armed forces.

However, the noxious "don't ask don't tell" policy clearly discriminates against gays and deprives all military personnel of their rights to free speech under the Constitution. Universities are correct to deny the Pentagon access to the campus until this law is rescinded. It's as though being gay is some kind of dirty secret when heterosexual groping and raping of women naval officers is fit talk for the military party circuit.

What is most disappointing is the lack of companion Federal recruiting efforts on campus to engage students who will dedicate their lives to peace and social justice. Such a life was sufficient for Jesus Christ and the apostles, but the Bush misAdministration snaps at the military solution every chance it gets -- and fails to explore peaceful overtures, as the recent Pearle disclosures demonstrate.

The United States needs an adequate military defense establishment. But the military-industrial complex has grown so large and powerful that it overshadows all other activities of government and is setting the agenda for an increasingly militarist society. The president, for example, has not got a word to say about the recent disclosures in the Toledo Blade of systematic American atrocities in Vietnam.

Germany and Japan are doing quite nicely as good citizens of the world without such a military-industrial complex. By contrast, a recent poll of Europeans indicates they fear Israel and the U.S. as the leading aggressive nations in the world today.

It's time for a change.

Sherwood Ross (electronic mail, November 11, 2003)