A former U.S. military chief of staff cited Israel’s experience in recommending allowing gays to openly join the military.What makes the US so special that it will not allow gays to serve openly in its military? The argument that allowing homosexuals to serve will have a deleterious effect on order, discipline, and morale is hooey! And military officers and the powers-that-be know it.
Gen. John Shalikashvili, who was chief of staff under President Clinton when the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was introduced, said it was time to move on to the next phase: open acceptance of gays in the military.
“I now believe that if gay men and lesbians served openly in the United States military, they would not undermine the efficacy of the armed forces,” Shalikashvili wrote on Tuesday’s New York Times’ opinion page.
“Our military has been stretched thin by our deployments in the Middle East, and we must welcome the service of any American who is willing and able to do the job.
Shalikashvili cited “Israel, Britain and other allies in the fight against terrorism” as having militaries that have successfully integrated gays. [Source: The World Congress of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Jews]
Gays are allowed to serve openly in many countries. To quote a few examples, they are allowed to serve openly in Australia, Canada, Israel, France, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, to name but a few countries. These countries certainly do not seem to have any problems or issues with allowing gays to serve openly. So what makes the US military so damn special and precious?
Would it be acceptable for the US military to stop blacks serving? No, I thought not. So what makes it acceptable to ban openly gay soldiers? And what makes it acceptable for such military personnel to be discharged for “homosexual conduct”?
This is all Dark Age stuff. The American military is showing itself to be little better than the Saudi military. Bigotry rules supreme there, too!
Bartleby asks the following question: Given that practically all of our major European allies - the EU countries with whom we normally align ourselves - openly allow gays in the military, why are we so reluctant to take that same step forward?
Please allow me to answer it.
The answer is simple: The powers-that-be in the American military are reactionary, ill-informed, backward-looking, bigotted, and just plain unfair. Many are religious conservatives; others are just plain self-righteous. It has little or nothing to do with either order, discipline, morale, or cohesion. Experience in the military in countries which allow gays to serve openly will attest to this.
Obama came to power promising to change this absurd Clintonian policy of ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ – a cop-out of a policy if ever there was one. Let’s see now if Obama has the balls to follow through on his election promise. – © Mark
Gays in the Military: What About the UK, France, and Other EU Countries? >>> Bartleby | Sunday, March 19, 2006
