A Stitch in Haste

"There may very well be individuals who think they are atheists when they go on the battlefield, but I've never known anyone who's been wounded to leave the battlefield as an atheist."
--General Peter Pace, April 21, 2006

"23,417"
--Latest number of "non-atheists" from the Iraq War.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff plays the raw recruit on Don't Ask, Don't Tell:

Pace said the Pentagon should not "condone" immoral behavior by allowing gay soldiers to serve openly. He said his views were based on his personal "upbringing," in which he was taught that certain types of conduct are immoral.

"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.

A few hasty stitches:

--Peter Pace is Catholic. Suddenly it all becomes unsurprising.

--The nation's Mercenary-in-Chief has no standing, none whatsoever, to lecture anyone on any aspect of "immorality." Do we really need to go into recent specifics?

--Stated differently, there is no such thing as a "Christian soldier," at least when there is no draft. What part of "love your enemy" is unclear? "Guns and Christ" is no less a contradiction in terms than "Guns and Allah," and any soldier — especially any professional soldier — who honestly thinks himself a "Christian" — Catholic or otherwise — has rather severe intellectual defects.

--JCS is a political position more than a military one. Like a Cabinet Secretary or any other high-profile member of the Administration, Pace is required, unconditionally, to shill for the President and endorse publicly any and every aspect of current policy — including its pandering sophistry on Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

--On the other hand, "I personally think it's immoral" is an arrogant overlay that is, or ought to be, orthogonal to (and omitted from) the discussion. If there are rational, objective arguments for discriminating against gays in the military, then let's discuss them (and, hopefully, disprove them). But Pace's personal views on the morality of homosexuality are about as relevant as his favorite flavor of ice cream.

--Isn't military training, especially officer training and double-especially command training, supposed to include what might be called "broadening one's horizons"? Shouldn't the highest ranking wearer of the uniform be able to think "outside the box" of his Brooklyn upbringing?

--One last thought:

"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.

It's quite simple really: "Gay" is about expressing love. "Adultery" is about betraying love. These are equivalent — how?

The road is long.

More thoughts at Think Progress, PHB, Diminishing Returns, Small Government Blog, Evolution of Jeremiah, Nobody in Particular, Frontlines, Word of Mike, PurpleScarf, Outright Libertarians, Jaded City.