Pace Out

General Peter Pace told the Senate that he thinks homosexual acts are immoral and don't belong in the military.

Pace, who retires next week, said he was seeking to clarify similar remarks he made in spring, which he said were misreported.

"Are there wonderful Americans who happen to be homosexual serving in the military? Yes," he told the Senate Appropriations Committee during a hearing focused on the Pentagon's 2008 war spending request.

"We need to be very precise then, about what I said wearing my stars and being very conscious of it," he added. "And that was very simply that we should respect those who want to serve the nation, but not through the law of the land condone activity in my upbringing is counter to God's law."

I'm not a lawyer, nor have I read the Uniform Code of Military Justice from cover to cover, but I'm pretty sure that God's law is not cited as the foundation of military jurisprudence. If it was, I think someone would have pointed that out by now.

I have, however, read the bible and I do recall several passages that condemn war and violence against our fellow man. In fact, I think one of the major characters in the bible has several imprecations against war and in favor of peace, including "Blessed are the peacemakers...." So it seems to be a tad disconcerting that General Pace would cite God's law to keep "immorality" out of the military, yet ignore it in order to have a job.

Once again General Pace is promoting the stereotype that the entire gay community is defined by what they do in the privacy of their bedrooms. As it stands, the current policy of Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) requires that gay military personnel not disclose their sexual orientation because if they do, presumably mass orgies of soldiers humping each other will break out in military installations all over the world. As fascinating as that may be to some (i.e. Jeff Gannon, right wing shill and male prostitute at hotmilitarystuds.com), it's laughably ridiculous. Just because someone is gay and out of the closet doesn't mean they're any more defined by their orientation than a straight person is, nor is it relevant to the job they're doing. But these generals with tremendous gay issues can't get beyond the adolescent fascination they have with gay sex, so regardless of the morality or personal scruples that any one person may have -- gay or straight -- they cannot see beyond that one thing.

If the UCMJ forbids sex between people who aren't married to each other, then that's fine, but let the law be applied equally. The assumption that just because a soldier is gay means he or she is prone to sexual immorality any more than some horny heterosexual private is just plain bigotry; it condemns an entire group of people based on something they have no control over and before they even get a chance to prove themselves to be fit to wear the uniform and serve in the military.

It isn't the gays who should be kicked out of the military, it's the people who, for whatever reason, cannot get over their pathological fixation with sex. They're the ones whose morality should be questioned.

Crossposted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.