Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

I hate to enter into this discussion. As a veteran with relatives still serving, I have to answer the proposed change to Clinton’s policy on homosexuals in the military. I am opposed to removing this limit on homosexuals serving in our military. The veterans with whom I associate, many, and the service members in my family, many, all agree that homosexuals being allowed to serve openly in the military would be very detrimental to military preparedness. M.T. Owens’ article in the Wall Street Journal explains this much better than I can, and I quote: “Accordingly, the military stresses such martial virtues as courage, both physical and moral, a sense of honor and duty, discipline, a professional code of conduct, and loyalty. It places a premium on such factors as unit cohesion and morale. The glue of the military ethos is what the Greeks called philia—friendship, comradeship or brotherly love. Philia, the bond among disparate individuals who have nothing in common but facing death and misery together, is the source of the unit cohesion that most research has shown to be critical to battlefield success.
Philia depends on fairness and the absence of favoritism. Favoritism and double standards are deadly to philia and its associated phenomena—cohesion, morale and discipline—are absolutely critical to the success of a military organization.
The presence of open homosexuals in the close confines of ships or military units opens the possibility that eros—which unlike philia is sexual, and therefore individual and exclusive—will be unleashed into the environment. Eros manifests itself as sexual competition, protectiveness and favoritism, all of which undermine the nonsexual bonding essential to unit cohesion, good order, discipline and morale.
Accordingly, the military stresses such martial virtues as courage, both physical and moral, a sense of honor and duty, discipline, a professional code of conduct, and loyalty. It places a premium on such factors as unit cohesion and morale. The glue of the military ethos is what the Greeks called philia—friendship, comradeship or brotherly love. Philia, the bond among disparate individuals who have nothing in common but facing death and misery together, is the source of the unit cohesion that most research has shown to be critical to battlefield success.
Philia depends on fairness and the absence of favoritism. Favoritism and double standards are deadly to philia and its associated phenomena—cohesion, morale and discipline—are absolutely critical to the success of a military organization.
The presence of open homosexuals in the close confines of ships or military units opens the possibility that eros—which unlike philia is sexual, and therefore individual and exclusive—will be unleashed into the environment. Eros manifests itself as sexual competition, protectiveness and favoritism, all of which undermine the nonsexual bonding essential to unit cohesion, good order, discipline and morale.”
And before Gen. Colin Powell became enamored with Barack Obama he stated in 1992: "Skin color is a benign nonbehavioral characteristic. Sexual orientation is perhaps the most profound of human behavioral characteristics. Comparison of the two is a convenient but invalid argument."
Also, much has been made of the move of many countries to allow homosexuals to serve openly in their militaries. What has not been emphasized is that all of these countries have lost wars or have been heavily dependent on the US to win the wars in which they have been engaged since 1900. Be it with intelligence or material support, or actual US military engagement, these countries would not be able to fend for themselves. Even natural disasters cause the countries of the world to call for US assistance. And our non-homosexual military always responds and performs excellently. ‘Nuff said.