by Gerry J. Gilmore
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Aug. 27, 1999) - Critics of an Army school at Fort Benning, Ga., are campaigning to persuade members of Congress to eliminate funding the facility needs to operate.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 230-197 on July 30 to cut $1.2 million earmarked for tuition and travel costs for foreign students attending military training courses at the U.S. Army School of the Americas.
Without that funding, the school would be unable to train and positively impact up to 1,000 Latin American and Caribbean military, civilian and police students per year, according to Army officials.
Without the $1.2 million, the remainder of the school's budget ($3 million) would pay for operational maintenance and staff salaries, but there would be no students to teach, said Army officials.
The USARSA funding issue is set for discussion between members of House and Senate appropriation committees in September when Congress returns from its August recess, according to Army officials.
USARSA plays an important role in current U.S. national security strategy, which stresses engagement with foreign governments and militaries in order to shape the international environment in ways favorable to U.S. security interests, said Col. Glenn R. Weidner, USARSA's commandant. Established in Panama in 1946, USARSA relocated to Fort Benning in 1984 as part of the 1977 Panama Canal Treaty.
In recent years, said Weidner, the school has come under attack by human rights groups that allege the USARSA has trained and continues to train Latin American military officers and police officials in techniques of cruelty to suppress populations back home seeking societal and governmental reform.
Specifically, he said, critics who want to close the school say some USARSA graduates have conducted crackdowns, which included torture, against government dissidents in their home countries, such as Panama and El Salvador, during the 1980s.
Weidner, a 1971 West Point graduate and 28-year Army veteran, strongly denies critics' allegations that the USARSA "has trained or trains dictators." He graduated from the USARSA's Command and General Staff Officer Course in 1986, and then served on the faculty as course director the following year.
"I believe the campaign to close USARSA has relied upon a systematic distortion of the record in order to achieve its purpose," said Weidner. "My own reading of that record, as well as my own experience at the school in 1986-87 convince me that the school, despite allegations to the contrary, has promoted values entirely consistent with those espoused by its fiercest critics."
USARSA's lesson plans "reflect U.S. military doctrine and U.S. and international law," he said.
"Our intent is to transmit through course content and by example the same values and professional standards taught to our own soldiers," said Weidner.
Noting that more than 60,000 Latin American soldiers and officials have attended USARSA in its 53-year history, Weidner said the few who betrayed their training -- like USARSA alumni Gen. Manuel Noriega, the former president of Panama now imprisoned for drug-dealing and other crimes -- are far outweighed by the vast majority who have participated in the overwhelming transition to democracy that has characterized the region."
"[The USARSA] promotes U.S. values with respect to democracy, the proper role of the military in society, and adherence to international standards of human rights. Bottom line, USARSA did not, and does not teach torture or violations of the law. Rather, it does just the opposite," he said.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: The U.S. Army School of the Americas is featured in a cover article in the September issue of SOLDIERS Magazine.)
