There are, it seems to me, a surprising number of people who have qualms with the idea of the Appalachian State University ROTC.

According to naysayers, the ROTC is in place to teach its members how precisely and quickly obliterate enemies.

Militaries have, after all, been in place throughout history to do just that when the time calls for it.

In every way, I agree with the above statement.

It is military-based, and the recruits being trained on this campus are trained for the United States Army, and could possibly be called on to precisely and quickly obliterate enemies.

My question then is, “how is that a bad thing?”

And “how is that the only thing?”

The ROTC has a lot more to offer than just target practice.

According to Appalachian Army ROTC’s homepage, “Army ROTC is one of the best leadership courses in the country and is part of your college curriculum. During classes and field training, you will learn first-hand what it takes to lead others, motivate groups and how to conduct missions as an officer in the Army.”

There’s something more to their mission statement than just thinly veiled lies.

You’ll even notice that nowhere in there does it mention Army ROTC trains bloodthirsty murderers in the art of utter bloody devastation of foes.

Some, myself included, argue the training extends past military training.

Colin Powell said this on the matter: “The order, the self-discipline, the pride that had been instilled in me by ROTC was a tremendous companion to my basic liberal arts education and prepared me well for my Army career, or for that matter, any career I might have chosen.”

That comes straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, and I think it speaks volumes.

ROTC is, according to every possible official source, a companion to a college education, and I do believe Appalachian has some stock in that, if not in utter bloody devastation of foes, as an organization run by citizens. It’s our country, it’s our military, and ROTC cadets are here for educations in addition to training.

Further, our military recruits are on a volunteer-based system.

There is no draft.

Only people who want to sign up do so – they try and strong-arm you, yes, but it’s really easy to say “stop calling me,” even if you have to say it a dozen or so times.

The bottom line is we need recruits, and the ROTC consistently produces them.

According the Army’s ROTC Web site, the ROTC is responsible for approximately 60 percent of the second lieutenants who join the active Army, the Reserves and Army National Guard. More than 40 percent of current Active Duty Army General Officers were commissioned through ROTC.

So imagine our current conflict without the ROTC.

Agree or disagree with the conflict itself, without 60 percent of active second lieutenants, we’d either be getting systematically exterminated as a country by several different terrorist organizations or worse – drafted.

It’s really easy to sit around a campfire and sing “Kum Ba Yah” when we don’t have the slightest clue what’s going on in Iraq.

Myself, I’d rather have someone trained to fight doing the fighting, and if Appalachian has a hand in that, I’m all for it.

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