Onward Christian General
“There may very well be individuals who think they are atheists when they go on the battlefield, but I’ve never known anyone who’s been wounded to leave the battlefield as an atheist.”
–General Peter Pace, April 21, 2006
“23,417″
–Latest number of “non-atheists” from the Iraq War.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff plays the raw recruit on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell:
Pace said the Pentagon should not “condone” immoral behavior by allowing gay soldiers to serve openly. He said his views were based on his personal “upbringing,” in which he was taught that certain types of conduct are 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.
A few hasty stitches:
–Peter Pace is Catholic. Suddenly it all becomes unsurprising.
–The nation’s Mercenary-in-Chief has no standing, none whatsoever, to lecture anyone on any aspect of “immorality.” Do we really need to go into recent specifics?
–Stated differently, there is no such thing as a “Christian soldier,” at least when there is no draft. What part of “love your enemy” is unclear? “Guns and Christ” is no less a contradiction in terms than “Guns and Allah,” and any soldier — especially any professional soldier — who honestly thinks himself a “Christian” — Catholic or otherwise — has rather severe intellectual defects.
–JCS is a political position more than a military one. Like a Cabinet Secretary or any other high-profile member of the Administration, Pace is required, unconditionally, to shill for the President and endorse publicly any and every aspect of current policy — including its pandering sophistry on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
–On the other hand, “I personally think it’s immoral” is an arrogant overlay that is, or ought to be, orthogonal to (and omitted from) the discussion. If there are rational, objective arguments for discriminating against gays in the military, then let’s discuss them (and, hopefully, disprove them). But Pace’s personal views on the morality of homosexuality are about as relevant as his favorite flavor of ice cream.
–Isn’t military training, especially officer training and double-especially command training, supposed to include what might be called “broadening one’s horizons”? Shouldn’t the highest ranking wearer of the uniform be able to think “outside the box” of his Brooklyn upbringing?
–One last thought:
“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.
It’s quite simple really: “Gay” is about expressing love. “Adultery” is about betraying love. These are equivalent — how?
The road is long.
More thoughts at Think Progress, PHB, Diminishing Returns, Small Government Blog, Evolution of Jeremiah, Nobody in Particular, Frontlines, Word of Mike, PurpleScarf, Outright Libertarians, Jaded City.
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In my almost six years on active duty, I lost count as to how many people were drummed out of the military due to being accused of being a homosexual. Please note I said "accused", as this was pre-DADT.
During that same time, I knew of no one who was prosecuted, much less relieved of duty, for adultery — a violation of UCMJ.
Ooh, ooh!
Do I get to say it first?
All Christian soldiers are, by definition, moral defectives?
I love it when anti-gay middle-class Republicratic folks complain constantly about the army shortage and how it's causing all sorts of problems.
Are they quitting their jobs and joining? Nope.
Are they urging their children to skip college and join the army? Nuh uh.
Are they working hard to convince their brothers, sisters or close friends to do their patriotic duty and head to Iraq? Hardly.
Yet they're more than willing to have people they don't know go off and die for the latest politicians' scheme. . . unless, of course, that person happens to be (gasp) gay.
Then they just complain about how awful it is the army cannot find new enlistees — while avoiding their own enlistment and that of their families, and also ensuring that thousands of qualified professionals who can do the job are rendered "immoral."
It's a shame that these "upstanding Christians" cannot directly feel the impact of their own efforts, and that the poor folks in New York City and Washington DC had to suffer the consequences of their stupidity back in 2001.
I find going into specifics to be very worthwhile. The military leadership of this country has as much credibility on ethics as the civilian leadership. That is, a shortage. General Pace was personally complicit in at least one outright lie. So much for honor.