by Patrick J. Buchanan – August 25, 1997

There is a purpose to that “rat line” at Virginia Military Institute. As a mustang’s spirit must be broken to make it a war horse, so tough, willful, rebellious 17-year-old boys need to learn obedience to command to become good soldiers. A rifle platoon is, after all, neither a debating society nor a democracy.

But what was the purpose of those four VMI upperclassmen, photographed last week screaming in the face of a female cadet half their size? What would the chivalrous Robert E. Lee, beau ideal of Southern military manhood, think of 22-year-old Southern officers and gentlemen bellowing at and bullyragging 17-year-old girls?