The San Francisco Board of Education voted 4-2 Tuesday to phase out its school system’s Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program, reports Associated Press news service. The problem, the board says, is the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, enacted during the Clinton Administration. AP reports that city by the bay Mayor Gavin Newsome called shelving JROTC a “bad idea” that puts people who want to participate in the “political peril of being in this ideological debate.” AP says San Francisco has some 1,600 students who participate in JROTC. The phase out would take place over 2007-08.
The U.S. military is maintaining a beefed-up presence in the Middle East, including fighters and air defense assets, following the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities June 22 and subsequent retaliation by the Iranians against Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
