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Posts Tagged ‘Military’

Of course it is never my intention to offend anyone, but I somehow manage to do it without even trying.  Especially when I discuss controversial topics.  But I guess that comes with the topic, not everyone will agree.  Please, just don’t take this personally, it’s just me spouting an opinion.

Good, not that I’ve got that disclaimer out of the way….

On the AM talk radio show I listen to on my way to work, they were discussing the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.  A man called in to voice his opinion on gays in the military.  He said that in the military they are trained to function as a unit.  Every man (person) covering everyone else to protect everyone in the unit to the best of their ability, especially in a combat situation.  He went on to say “I don’t want to be in a combat unit where one guy is going to protect some guys better than others just because he’s attracted to them.”

At that point I decided that person was a total idiot.  Why? (this list is in it’s simplest form.  I understand on many levels the military is different than any other job, but doesn’t there have to be some basic level of rules/regulations that apply to every employer/job?)

• In it’s simplest forms, the military is just like any other job. It’s just that, a job.
• I don’t know of any other job where sexual preference can get you fired.  That sounds a whole lot like discrimination.
• In a combat situation I find it truly hard to believe that with the enemy attacking you your mind will be on who’s got the cutest ass, and who you’d like to bunk with.  I  mean, I can not remember a time ever in my life when I was in a stressful situation and all I could think about was sex.
• What if the roles were reversed?  What if it was a woman in the unit?  Wouldn’t he be just as concerned that she couldn’t do the job as well for the same reason?  She was too busy focusing on which guy she was going to get naked with later?
• Or, would a  man protect her more because he was attracted to her, or less because she had turned him down.

I guess I just kind of want to know, why does sexual orientation, sexual gender, sexual preference have to come into play here.

Equal rights for all; Special privileges for none                ~Thomas Jefferson

That doesn’t just apply to gays in the military. It applies for everyone.  We should all have the same rights, live by the same rules.  The Declaration of Independence says

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

When did we lose sight of that?  When did we forget that?

I had a conversation with my brother who is a member of the military (AIM HIGH) about this. He told me there are many levels about this policy that he is not at liberty to talk about.  I believe that. But at it’s basic core, I think it’s wrong.

I’m about to fall flat on my face, yet again.  Oh and put my foot in my mouth along the way.  I’m graceful like that.

Yesterday when the news broke about the Fort Hood shooting my first question was “Them or us?”

That is a very tellling quesiton and one that is not altogether unreasonable.

8 years ago,  we never could have imagined or prepared for an attack on our country with our own planes. They did and that meant that anything was possible. Even things we had never even dreamed or thought or considered.

If the Fort Hood shootings had taken place before September 11, we would have just assumed it was an American who had gone postal.

After September 11, it very well could have been one of them.

It is no longer unfathomable or unthinkable for the terriorist to either recruit a current member of our military, or to have one of their own enlist in our military.   It’s not outside the realm of possibilities that the next attack against us, on our soil, will come from ‘within’ from ‘one of our own’.

Homeland security has been diligent in protecting our borders, with increased security at our airports.  They have monitored and investigated threats and plots ag ainst America and have actually prevented some.  But preventing terrorists to enter our country isn’t the most we can do.

It is possible that the terrorists will come from inside.

The fact is, it is now possible that ‘they’ could be one of ‘us’.