Bottom Line Up Front: GEN Pace said homosexual conduct is immoral, and he had a right to say it.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune on Monday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff GEN Peter Pace said he believed homosexual conduct to be immoral after defending the military’s “Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell” policy. He was not speaking officially on behalf of the military but was asked his personal opinion on the policy.

Bits and pieces of the interview are being reported, but in the spirit of context, I have transcribed the statement in its entirety from the audio interview GEN Pace granted the Chicago Tribune:

March 12, 2007

“My upbringing is such that I believe that there are certain things, certain types of conduct, that are immoral. I believe that military members who sleep with other military members wives are immoral in their conduct and that we should not tolerate that. I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts.

“So the don’t-ask/don’t-tell allows an individual to serve the country. If we know about immoral acts regardless if committed by whom, then we have a responsibility. I do not believe that the Armed Forces of the United States are well served by saying through our policies that it’s okay to be immoral in any way, not just with regards to homosexuality. So from that stand point, saying that gays should serve openly in the military to me says that by policy would be condoning what I believe is immoral activity.

“Therefore, as an individual, I would not want that 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 someone else’s wife, that we would look the other way. Which we do not. We prosecute that kind of immoral behavior between members of the Armed Forces.”

Those statements didn’t go over well with liberals and gay groups. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) issues this press release on its web site demanding that General Pace apologize for his remarks:

“General Pace’s comments are outrageous, insensitive and disrespectful to the 65,000 lesbian and gay troops now serving in our armed forces,” said C. Dixon Osburn, the group’s executive director. “Our men and women in uniform make tremendous sacrifices for our country, and deserve General Pace’s praise, not his condemnation. As a Marine and a military leader, General Pace knows that prejudice should not dictate policy. It is inappropriate for the Chairman to condemn those who serve our country because of his own personal bias. He should immediately apologize for his remarks.”

General Pace likened homosexuality to adultery, which he said was also immoral, The Tribune reported on its Web site. He also announced his opposition to Congressional legislation to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Well, we wouldn’t want anyone thinking adultery is immoral! The connection, of course, is between activities that undermine moral and distract the mission. This sort of behavior, whether heterosexual or homosexual, fractures unit cohesiveness and a healthy work environment in a vocation where individuals are very intimate.

The preposterous notion that anyone should demand an apology does two things: 1) It takes away from the sincerity of the apology and makes it coersed, but more importantly it 2) promotes the idea that the offended (in this case, gays) are victims (of words???) and that they deserve more sympathy and civil rights.

SLDN claims 65,000 service members are gay, clearly an inflated figure to promote their gay agenda. The Defense Department lists a total of 2.3 million U.S. Armed Forces, including 1.3 million active duty and 1.1 million National Guard and Reserves. That would mean approximately 2.8% of the military are homosexual by the SLDN figure. The national figure is about the same. Hmmm…..

Considering that the gay community is overwhelmingly left and votes Democrat and that about 74% of the military voted Republican in the 2004 elections, the 65,000 figure simply doesn’t add up. Gary J. Gates of the Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population at The Urban Institute and co-author of The Gay and Lesbian Atlas estimated that about 36,000 gays serve in the military based on census results, making the 65,000 figure more than a 50% exaggeration.

Gates also says the Kinsey study citing a 10% homosexual population in the U.S. is “not terribly accurate”, with the real figure being between 1.4 - 3.6%. But I digress.

Missed by the media and liberals is that GEN Pace exercised the opposite of disrespect; his point is that if ‘Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell” provide a way for gay soldiers to serve without engaging in the moral sphere. If it were repealed, openly gay servicemembers would have no need for discretion, and this will undoubtedly damage the military in a way similar to open adultery. Adultery is never acceptable.

GEN Pace’s message is also that immorality in the military should not be ignored. This is a healthy and vital position to take. The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) lists sodomy (arcitle 125), rape and carnal knowledge (article 120) and conduct unbecoming an officer (article 133) as some punishable offenses listed in the UCMJ. If heterosexuals were allowed to openly engage in promiscuous behavior, that also would incompatible with those regulations and the Seven Army Values: Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity and Personal Courage. Clearly sex outside of marriage is not relative to any of these values. Why should it be any different for gays?

GEN Pace was asked to give his personal opinion, and he provided it. Peter Pace is a devout Catholic who attends not only the obligatory weekly Mass, but daily Mass as often as possible. He is a good man and a good leader who has a right to his opinion. It’s hypocritical of the left to demand a retraction from him when they, in fact, encourage the troops to dissent to promote their anti-war agenda. GEN Pace has a right to dissent from political correctness, and he has freedom of religon to boot.

He’s not apologizing and he shouldn’t. GEN said: “I do not believe that the Armed Forces of the United States are well served by saying through our policies that it’s okay to be immoral in any way.” GEN Pace is really onto something; the idea that immorality of any kind be unacceptable in the military is totally productive. I can say as an Army wife of 14 years that the single factor leading to personal and professional trouble in the military is immorality of any kind. That was GEN Pace’s point.

Cross posted @: Bottom Line Up Front

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