Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Peter Pace equated gay people with adulterers in his now infamous statement in which he described homosexuality as immoral:
“I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts,” Pace said in a wide-ranging discussion with Tribune editors and reporters in Chicago. “I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way.
“As an individual, I would not want [acceptance of gay behavior] to be our policy, just like I would not want it to be our policy that if we were to find out that so-and-so was sleeping with somebody else’s wife, that we would just look the other way, which we do not. We prosecute that kind of immoral behavior,” Pace said.
The difference, of course, is that adulterers are not routinely prevented from serving in the military.
Adding salt in the wound, new figures out today suggest that the military is not persecuting gay service members as agressively as they have in the past:
According to preliminary Pentagon data, 612 homosexuals were discharged in fiscal 2006, fewer than half the 1,227 who were discharged in 2001. On average, more than 1,000 service members were discharged each year from 1997 to 2001, but in the past five years that average has fallen below 730.
Here is another example of the mad mix of cynicism and hypocrisy that is the hallmark of the Bush era. Enlistments are down, so the military is “allowing” its gay members to serve. When enlistments are back up — or the war ends — they’ll start the persecutions again.
If General Pace is an expert on things immoral, then perhaps he could answer the following:
What about a war started illegally by the use of lies, distortions, half-truths and still more lies?
The same war has killed over 655,000 civilians and seen the death of nearly 3,500 of our soldiers.
An entire civilization is being wiped out thru the use of depleted uranium.
Some of the same people that helped with the lies to start the war are now profiting immensely off the money being spent to finance the war.
And your own Pentagon has been reckless and neglectful in caring for the war wounded to the pont of criminality.
So, General Pace, does this also fit your version of immoral?
Greg Bacon
Ava, MO
I’ve been in the military. Anyone who has served overseas and/or at isolated duty stations knows this simple fact:
If ALL the sexual behavior forbidden by the UCMJ were prosecuted, including: homosexuality, adultery, sex between unmarried people, servicemen buying sex from prostitutes where illegal, sex traded for special treatment or favors, and sex between officers and enlisted, the only surge would be the surge of prosecutions.
This is just more bigoted BS. Otherwise, the general would be equally concerned about ALL the immorality in the ranks, not just the kind he finds icky.