The Buck and Mike Blog

Cynthia Tucker in yesterday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The nation’s top military officer, Gen. Peter Pace, has expressed regret for comments he made recently about gays serving in the armed forces. But it’s better that he said what he believed out loud and on the record…

Unwittingly, the general dropped the facade that has covered the homophobia rampant among the top officer corps. That’s progress. Now, the White House, military officials and congressional leaders can have a frank discussion of the risks of allowing simple bigotry to dictate fitness for the armed forces…

Truth be told, most top officers already know that gay troops don’t undermine efficacy, disrupt unit cohesion or erode discipline. One of the dirty little secrets of current Pentagon policy is its hypocrisy: When soldiers are needed for battle, when the military is desperate for “boots on the ground,” the purges of gay men and women drop significantly, as countless studies have shown. That’s been true in every conflict since World War II…

Cynthia Tucker, Atlanta, Journal-Constitution, Peter Pace, homophobia, bigotry

The U.S. military grants thousands of moral waivers a year to allow people into the military who would otherwise not be eligible.

Gen. Peter Pace said last week, “I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts.” If he does not condone immoral acts, how does he sleep at night knowing that, while he is forcing gays out of the military, at the same time violent criminals are allowed to serve in the military in order to make up for the shortfall caused by forcing gays out?

The military allows moral waivers for these offenses and more: Murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, indecent assault, sedition, riot, “carnal knowledge of child under 16″, arson, criminal libel, extortion, adultery, fornication, prostitution/solicitation, resisting arrest, vandalism.

Last March, a soldier allowed into the army under moral waivers, Private Steven Green, admitted to raping, murdering and burning the body of a 15 year old girl in Iraq, then murdering several members of her family. It is insanity to forbid people from serving in the military when they have committed no crimes but are judged immoral by some, and then replacing them with known violent criminals who are judged as immoral by all. Stop sending American criminals into the military to become emissaries to the world. Stop issuing moral waivers now.

moral waivers, Peter Pace, Steven Green