Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Grandma's beatin' off the Indians.
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 03:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serai.
So much for supporting the troops:
Far-right group slams U.S. military for "San Francisco-style social experimentation"
The right condemns U.S. military for ‘San Francisco-style social experimentation’
Posted December 17th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Following up on an item from yesterday, “60 Minutes” aired a very compelling report late night, highlighting an awkward reality for our war-time military: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” mandates that gay servicemen and women who are open about their sexual orientation have to be discharged and thrown out of the armed forces. But recruiting difficulties, retention difficulties, and national-security interests make it difficult for the military leaders to reject able-bodied, patriotic, American volunteers, based not on ability or performance, but on whether or not they’re gay.
CBS’s Lesley Stahl reported that the pressures have led to a new reality — a fighting force that’s starting to care less and less about DADT and discharging capable American troops. Some commanding officers are confronted with gay troops, and decide that it just doesn’t matter — the U.S. military and American interests are better served having these soldiers serving their country than not.
As a result, gay soldiers discharged under the DADT policy have dropped from 1,200 a year in 2001 to less than half of that now. It’s still an arbitrary and capricious process — some troops are thrown out for being gay, others aren’t — but the CBS report was helpful anyway. It helped prove that the U.S. military, still the greatest fighting force in the world, remains strong, even with openly gay troops.
Except, some of the unhinged members of the conservative movement didn’t quite see it that way. ThinkProgress pointed to this jaw-dropping report from CNS News, a right-wing, online outfit.
Matt Barber, policy director for cultural issues with the conservative group Concerned Women for America (CWA), agreed with Davis. “The military is no place for such radical San Francisco-style social experimentation, especially during a time of war,” he told Cybercast News Service. […]
“If the bleeding-heart lefties over at CBS News and the [Servicemembers Legal Defense Network] really want to do something to support our troops and help the military, they should abandon their attempts to radically alter and undermine the armed forces, pipe down, put a cork in it and let our brave fighting men and women win this war on terror,” he added.
So, U.S. military leaders are wrong for keeping their units intact during a war, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network is wrong for wanting to allow all Americans to serve, and CBS News is wrong for telling the public about the military reality.
Wow.
Concerned Women for America’s Barber, a military veteran himself, added:
“It’s been the Department of Defense’s long-standing position that to allow open homosexual behavior and other immoral conduct harms unit cohesion and troop morale,” Barber said.
“I know this to be true from personal experience,” he stated. “I served 12 years in the military. During basic training, one of my fellow recruits was sent home for soliciting sex from other male recruits. The incident was an enormous distraction from our task at hand, which was to learn how to be good soldiers.
“Instead, recruits were violated, complaints were filed, and our command was forced to conduct a thorough investigation,” Barber noted. “It was an incredible waste of time and resources, and it definitely harmed troop morale and unit cohesion.”
I don’t doubt that it did, but that’s hardly a good argument. The incident he described involved a bad apple who clearly wasn’t cut out for military service.
But it’s the typical discriminatory tack — Barber had an unfortunate run-in with a guy who was gay, and so therefore, the U.S. military needs a blanket policy against able-bodied gay volunteers serving their country during a war.
But what if one soldier hits on another soldier? First, by that logic, Barber and Concerned Women for America would also have to support banning straight women from military service. Second, given the “60 Minutes” report last night, that doesn’t seem to be a problem in reality.
U.S. troops — who deserve our support, whether CWA likes it or not — who do their duty shouldn’t be sent home.
*eyeroll*
So much for supporting the troops:
Far-right group slams U.S. military for "San Francisco-style social experimentation"
The right condemns U.S. military for ‘San Francisco-style social experimentation’
Posted December 17th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Following up on an item from yesterday, “60 Minutes” aired a very compelling report late night, highlighting an awkward reality for our war-time military: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” mandates that gay servicemen and women who are open about their sexual orientation have to be discharged and thrown out of the armed forces. But recruiting difficulties, retention difficulties, and national-security interests make it difficult for the military leaders to reject able-bodied, patriotic, American volunteers, based not on ability or performance, but on whether or not they’re gay.
CBS’s Lesley Stahl reported that the pressures have led to a new reality — a fighting force that’s starting to care less and less about DADT and discharging capable American troops. Some commanding officers are confronted with gay troops, and decide that it just doesn’t matter — the U.S. military and American interests are better served having these soldiers serving their country than not.
As a result, gay soldiers discharged under the DADT policy have dropped from 1,200 a year in 2001 to less than half of that now. It’s still an arbitrary and capricious process — some troops are thrown out for being gay, others aren’t — but the CBS report was helpful anyway. It helped prove that the U.S. military, still the greatest fighting force in the world, remains strong, even with openly gay troops.
Except, some of the unhinged members of the conservative movement didn’t quite see it that way. ThinkProgress pointed to this jaw-dropping report from CNS News, a right-wing, online outfit.
Matt Barber, policy director for cultural issues with the conservative group Concerned Women for America (CWA), agreed with Davis. “The military is no place for such radical San Francisco-style social experimentation, especially during a time of war,” he told Cybercast News Service. […]
“If the bleeding-heart lefties over at CBS News and the [Servicemembers Legal Defense Network] really want to do something to support our troops and help the military, they should abandon their attempts to radically alter and undermine the armed forces, pipe down, put a cork in it and let our brave fighting men and women win this war on terror,” he added.
So, U.S. military leaders are wrong for keeping their units intact during a war, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network is wrong for wanting to allow all Americans to serve, and CBS News is wrong for telling the public about the military reality.
Wow.
Concerned Women for America’s Barber, a military veteran himself, added:
“It’s been the Department of Defense’s long-standing position that to allow open homosexual behavior and other immoral conduct harms unit cohesion and troop morale,” Barber said.
“I know this to be true from personal experience,” he stated. “I served 12 years in the military. During basic training, one of my fellow recruits was sent home for soliciting sex from other male recruits. The incident was an enormous distraction from our task at hand, which was to learn how to be good soldiers.
“Instead, recruits were violated, complaints were filed, and our command was forced to conduct a thorough investigation,” Barber noted. “It was an incredible waste of time and resources, and it definitely harmed troop morale and unit cohesion.”
I don’t doubt that it did, but that’s hardly a good argument. The incident he described involved a bad apple who clearly wasn’t cut out for military service.
But it’s the typical discriminatory tack — Barber had an unfortunate run-in with a guy who was gay, and so therefore, the U.S. military needs a blanket policy against able-bodied gay volunteers serving their country during a war.
But what if one soldier hits on another soldier? First, by that logic, Barber and Concerned Women for America would also have to support banning straight women from military service. Second, given the “60 Minutes” report last night, that doesn’t seem to be a problem in reality.
U.S. troops — who deserve our support, whether CWA likes it or not — who do their duty shouldn’t be sent home.
*eyeroll*
