Gays In The Military
Today our Secretary Of Defense sets out to explain just how he is to go about and terminate the current ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy prevalent in today’s military. Americans now will line up on both sides of the issue and ‘experts’ will abound as talking heads extolling their points of view.
As with all things political, the real cost of this change (if that’s what it’s to be), that being of combat readiness is certainly to be overlooked. Just as in my day, unit cohesiveness can only be measured subjectively by local leaders/commanders. The degree to which openly gay individuals affect readiness will vary from unit to unit, small unit that is.
Politicians and policy makers tend to believe that in order to effect a specific change such as this merely requires them simply saying that it is so. They do not understand the implications of their edict, for most have never ‘been there’ and for those who have, it’s been so long that their recollection bears little, if any, resemblance to reality. Our President made this declaration, and thus our Defense Secretary has his marching orders. Hopefully, Mr Obama was not just fulfilling a campaign promise to a special interest group, but is genuine in his belief that our Armed Forces need this change.
The decision to do this will have serious complications in recruitment, retention, readiness, and even discipline. Will those same young men and women from the Heartland still enlist at sustainable numbers? Will those trained and ready veterans elect to reenlist in adequate numbers to maintain unit proficiency? Will these alternate lifestyles so offend those uniformed souls that good order would be difficult to maintain?
I can not answer these questions, for I have not worn the uniform for quite some time. I would ask, however, for a little better timing. Have we as a nation not placed ample strain on the young families that comprise our military? These same families have seen as many as three year long deployments to combat zones within a five year period. These same families suffer the indignity of supporting their children at least partially on food stamps. And yes, it is these families that endure debilitating injuries and loss of life at such an early age.
Regardless of where one stands on the wars we now conduct, today’s military has endured enough and does not deserve to end up as a pawn in some political game. Now is not the right time, if there is to be such a time.
Hats off to all our soldiers. Anyone who serves is a hero to me, so much more so than any celebrity or singer ever was.
I never joined the military - preexisting conditions prohibited me from serving as I wished, but I was ready to enlist.
However - I wouldn’t care at all about the sexual orientation of those soldiers next to me. My biggest concerns would be; does this person know what they are doing? Can he or she shoot, drive the tank, or fly the plane? Whether one is gay or straight doesn’t effect how you can run the equipment, load the ordinance, or repair the breakdown.
If I’m in a battle ready to fight, when I look to either side I would rather see two people, straight or gay, than no one at all.