The best way to save money and improve the caliber of officers in the U.S. military would be to shut down the training academies for the Army, Navy, and Air Force, argues Thomas E. Ricks, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, who has written extensively about America’s defense, including in his most recent book, The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq. The problem with places like West Point and Annapolis, Ricks says, is they’re not cost-effective when comparing the price of educating a cadet at these academies versus the quality schooling other officers receive through ROTC programs at universities. It costs the Defense Department $300,000 per West Point graduate compared to $130,000 for ROTC students, and many commanders have told Ricks that they prefer officers who come out of ROTC programs “because they tend to be better educated and less cynical about the military.”