Top Marine listens to the troops on the line

I hate writing two DADT posts in one day – it makes me feel like dicksmith, and that’s not good – but this one probably won’t hold until tomorrow. ROS and Jeffrey Schogol each sent us a link to separate articles about Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos and his comments today about the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and how he arrived at his conclusion that Congress shouldn’t repeal the policy. ROS sent me one from the Washington Post and Jeffrey from the Stars & Stripes.

The Post quoted the general;

“When your life hangs on the line,” said Gen. James F. Amos, the commandant of the Marine Corps, “you don’t want anything distracting. . . . Mistakes and inattention or distractions cost Marines’ lives.”

And S&S;

“Mistakes and inattention or distractions cost Marines lives,” he said. “That’s the currency of this fight.

“I take that very, very seriously,” he added. “I don’t want to lose any Marines to the distraction. I don’t want to have any Marines that I’m visiting at Bethesda [National Naval Medical Center, in Maryland] with no legs be the result of any type of distraction.”

The general claims that he arrived at his decision based on comments from his Marines who are trigger-pullers;

He noted [the survey] found Marines in noncombat roles seemed more ready to accept repeal [of DADT].

And that’s what many of us have been saying all along. I guess someone pushing paper from one side of his desk to the other depends less on the guy in the next cubicle for his life than someone in a hasty fighting position depends on the guy feeding him ammo. Every second is worth a life in combat.

Of course, the Post anticipated this a few weeks ago when they solicited an opinion piece from Tammy Schultz, a gay woman who has never been in combat, yet pretends to know the nature of men at war because she works in a Marine classroom.

I have studied, taught and interviewed Marines for 15 years and have gained great appreciation for the history and culture of the Corps, so much so, in fact, that I began teaching at the Marine Corps War College in Quantico almost three years ago.

Marines have survived and thrived as a service in part because they exemplify everything warrior. (I have never seen as many trucks with gun racks as I do driving on the Quantico base.)

As a rule, ground pounders are more conservative, resistant to change and likely to uphold tradition. This equates to a fear of the unknown – in this case, serving in combat with an openly gay Marine.

How about if ground pounders have a fear that a gay soldier or Marine who can’t follow a simple policy that has absolutely nothing to do with their job won’t follow a unit policy or a battle drill because they disagree with it? Seconds count when bullets move at 1500 feet per second. There are no second guesses in a fire fight.

“I don’t want to permit that opportunity [for distraction] to happen,” [Gen. Amos] said.

The Defense Department survey, released last month, found that 58 percent of those in Marine combat arms units predicted that repeal would negatively affect their ability to “work together to get the job done.” In comparison, 48 percent of those in Army combat units felt the same way.

48 percent is still a number the Army should listen to, it’s their lives, ya know. There is no reason we should have to put the troops through this right now, with a war being waged. Well, other than the fact that gay groups and dicksmith want it so badly they can taste it.

Added: A note to idiot fucks at Think Progress and Igor Volsky; read the article again. Amos said his Marines told him they might get distracted. I hate liberal turds.

The real distraction is a policy which denies gay Marines the right to confide in their straight comrades as they’re dealing with the difficulties of deployment.

Despite Volsky’s obviously Hollywood-inspired view of combat, soldiers under fire don’t think much about their sexuality or “confide” in their straight comrades. Thoughts kind of run along the lines of cover and concealment, aiming stakes and having sufficient ammo to make it through the day.

Category: Military issues