General Pace on “don’t ask, don’t tell”
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Peter Pace, responding to a question from a reporter from the Chicago Tribune, expressed support for the Administration’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy;
“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.
So because a soldier supports the policies of his commander-in-chief, and the commander-in-chief before him, the Servicemembers’ Legal Defense Network, which claims to represent 65,000Â servicemembers who are in violation of that policy thinks he should apologize;
“General Pace’s comments are outrageous, insensitive and disrespectful to the 65,000 lesbian and gay troops now serving in our armed forces,”
Now, let me get this straight; they think he should apologize for merely having a view that doesn’t jive with their’s? Apologize for having an opinion that is the legal opinion and not the opinion that supports criminals in violation of that policy?
Nevermind that there are more important things going on in the world that people (including the Chicago tribune, by the way)Â shouldn’t be getting exercised about who puts what where in the privacy of their homes, but demanding an apology for having an opinion is just ridiculous and childish. I think the Servicemembers’ Network should apologize for thinking they deserve an apology.
And the AP, by way of the Washington Post quotes the Human Rights Campaign;
Louis Vizcaino, spokesman for the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, said Pace’s comments were “insulting and offensive to the men and women … who are serving in the military honorably.”
“Right now there are men and women that are in the battle lines, that are in the trenches, they’re serving their country,” Vizcaino said. “Their sexual orientation has nothing to do with their capability to serve in the U.S. military.”
That’s exactly right, Lou. So why can’t they just serve and obey the policy?
