Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Peter Pace is shown at the Pentagon in Washington on Wednesday, March 7, 2007. Pace said Monday he considers homosexuality to be immoral and the military should not condone it by allowing gay soldiers to serve openly. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, FILE)This is what happens when generals put their combat boots in their mouths. From MSNBC.com:
WASHINGTON - Senior aides to the chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday that Marine Gen. Peter Pace won’t apologize for calling homosexuality immoral — an opinion that gay advocacy groups deplored.
In a newspaper interview Monday, Pace had likened homosexual acts to adultery and said the military should not condone it by allowing gays to serve openly in the armed forces.
“General Pace’s comments are outrageous, insensitive and disrespectful to the 65,000 lesbian and gay troops now serving in our armed forces,” the advocacy group Servicemembers Legal Defense Network said in a statement on its Web site.
The group has represented some of the thousands dismissed from the military for their sexual orientation.
Pace’s senior staff members said Tuesday that the general was expressing his personal opinion and did not intend to apologize. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak on the record.
[....]
In an interview Monday with the Chicago Tribune, Pace was asked about the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that allows gays and lesbians to serve if they keep their sexual orientation private and don’t engage in homosexual acts.
Pace said he supports the policy, which became law in 1994 and prohibits commanders from asking about a person’s sexual orientation.
“I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts,” Pace said in the audio recording of the interview posted on the Tribune’s Web site. “I do not believe that the armed forces of the United States are well served by a saying through our policies that it’s OK to be immoral in any way.”
Pace, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and a 1967 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, said he based his views on his upbringing.
“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,” he said, according to the audio and a transcript released by his staff.
The newspaper said Pace did not address concerns raised by a 2005 government audit that showed some 10,000 troops, including more than 50 specialists in Arabic, have been discharged because of the policy.
You can find the audio of General Pace's comments here:
General, it doesn't matter whether you believe in homosexuality or not, whether you believe that homosexuality is immoral or not, or if you are a flaming gay. You keep your mouth shut to the press on this issue--Don't ask, don't tell. You say you support the current Pentagon policy regarding gays in the military and that is that. But General, you had to open your mouth. And now we've got another wonderful scandal to savor here.
General, you've got a problem here. Both the Army, and the National Guard forces are stretched thin to the point of breaking down. Like it or not, you need new recruits to replace the already worn-out soldiers that have served multiple tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. If gays and lesbians want to serve their country by joining the military, then let them serve--heck, rescind the Pentagon's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and openly allow gays to serve in the military, if it helps increase military recruitment. You couldn't lose here.
Except when you opened your mouth.
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