comes from a college friend whose judgment I respect:
“I must admit that I was surprised to read your Corner post re: gays in the
military. As you well know, i’ve been opposed since college. In seven years
in the military I’ve seen nothing to change my mind.
“The morale problem is insurmountable. No, no, I don’t mean anti-gay
sentiment. I truly fail to understand how front-line leaders such as myself
can be expected to keep horny 18-year-olds away from each other. I can’t get
these yo-yos to come to drill sober, let alone keep their mitts off of each
other if sexual attraction is present.
“This problem is present with women, too, and for that reason I’d cheerfully
endorse an all-male military. But women are easier to keep segregated. We
can have women’s rooms, women’s bathrooms, etc., and women can be easily
identified as such. Precisely how do we work showers for gay soldiers? And
when Private Boy and Private Girl spend lots of time alone, common sense
tells us that something’s afoot. When Private Boy and Private Openly Gay But
Swears He’ll be Chaste slip away…are they pals, or something more? And if
it’s Private Boy and his supervisor, Sergeant Openly Gay, Etc., then what?
What can a leader do?
“Too trivial? After four lonely, dirty months in the field, it wouldn’t seem
so. And my understanding of human sexuality doesn’t support the notion that
18-year-olds can shower in the nude with other 18-year-olds to whom they are
sexually attracted, and not have bad things happen. The left might buy the
idea that the sexual urge can be flipped on and off like a switch – off when
at work, on when at home. The right should know better.
“It does no good to point to the rules against fraternization, sex with
subordinates, etc. Those rules aren’t obeyed among the heterosexuals, and,
as noted earlier, we have strong measures in place to help hetero soldiers
avoid temptation. And still we have awful problems.
“And do let’s keep in mind that all of these problems are quintupled in the
stress of a deployment, and quintupled again in combat. . . .
“I’m not acquainted with the British experience. But I’d take it with several
grains of salt, as a) the p.c. juggernaut has likely squelched any evidence
that a pro-gay policy has failed, just as the p.c. juggernaut routinely
squelches evidence in the U.S. that women in the military is a failed
policy; b) I’ve heard that many foreign militaries quietly track gays into
non-combat positions, and c) what the hell do Europeans know about fighting
contemporary wars anyway? Britain is the least bad of the bunch, but acting
as the American Army’s valet doesn’t really demand the same uncompromising
quest for the military excellence that we demand out of, say, the 82nd
Airborne.
“It’s probably true that, in a garrison, rear-eschelon environment, gays
(like women) can do as good a job as anyone else. But the military
recognizes that the garrison environment is not the true military
environment. The Army, at least, demands that every soldier be able to fight
like an infantryman under combat conditions, regardless of their ‘real Army
job.’ Every soldier must meet that standard. A soldier sexually attracted to
other soldiers cannot meet that standard.
“Sorry to belabor the point, but I’ve spent much time examining the issue –
and for me, the point is far from academic.”