School Halts Adopt a Sniper Fund-Raiser
American Snipers (Formerly Adopt-a-Sniper)
Snipers have always been part and parcel of warfare. What better way to eliminate an enemy than through stealth and surprise? Military historians can tell you about the evolution of the role of snipers in modern warfare, but most civilians know little about those who endure hours of boredom, privation, and discomfort in order to kill for a cause. Even so, celebrating those who kill through patience and stealth is not a politically correct way to win friends or influence enemies- as a certain group of College Republicans will be able to attest.
A U.S. university in Wisconsin has blocked an attempt by Republican students to raise money for a group called “Adopt a Sniper” that raises money for U.S. sharp-shooters in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The students were selling bracelets bearing the motto “1 Shot 1 Kill No Remorse I Decide.”
“Clearly the rhetoric of that organization raised some questions and we had some strong objections as a Jesuit university,” Marquette University school spokeswoman Brigid O’Brien said on Thursday.
The students, representing a group called College Republicans, originally got permission to set up a table at the student union to raise money for U.S. troops in Iraq.
But they chose to promote a group called Adopt a Sniper, which says on its Web site it supports snipers deployed by the United States armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The group says it “helps real snipers get the real gear they need to help keep us safe.”
No reasonable person will argue with the idea of supporting our troops in Iraq. Whether or not you support the war they are fighting, the reality is that they are there because they were ordered to go. Soldiers perform their duty as ordered. Supporting those performing their duty in neither a “Red State” or a “Blue State” agenda item. It’s an American thing.
Still, while supporting a portion of our American fighting force, few reasonable Americans would want to be associated with an organization that supports killing anonymously from long distance. Apparently, College Republican willingly go in where angels fear to tread.
Perhaps it’s just my Liberal sensibilities, but selling bracelets with the message “1 Shot 1 Kill No Remorse I Decide” seems about as tasteless and inappropriate as it gets. Then again, what more could one reasonably expect from College Republicans?
