George Rebane
Yesterday the Senate passed a bill to revoke the longstanding ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy banning gays serving openly in the military. Senator and combat veteran John McCain pronounced the passage a “sad day” for the military, adding "I hope that when we pass this legislation that we will understand that we are doing great damage, and we could possibly … harm the battle effectiveness which is so vital to the survival of our young men and women in the military". What did he mean by that?
Before liberals go ballistic on charges of unwarranted ‘discrimination’ and homophobia, it’s good to take a deep breath. The opposition comes down to open homosexuality in a combat unit that is on par with open heterosexuality in such a unit. I recall discussing this situation over the years, starting way back when I was on active duty as an artillery officer. We always came back to the same sticking point – in combat you don’t want two people in love serving in the same unit that is in or about to be in harm’s way.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s your wife or husband or boyfriend or girlfriend or your same-sex lover. People naturally make decisions that favor their lover over consideration for larger objectives the achievement of which would put their dear one in danger, or perhaps even sacrifice him/her. Those kinds of considerations don’t belong in either the heat or anticipation of battle. And if their existence is known to others, the collateral damage to cohesion and morale can be immeasurable, even to the point of totally compromising the mission and/or the unit.
So what to do about gays in the military? Well, you can come up with a slew of other rules and regulations about who can get assigned where. But if you have a unit that starts out with no one in love (or lust) with each other, but still have the possibility of that happening at some unknown point in the future, you have the same problem. And it could be even worse for everyone if the lovers attempt to keep their relationship a secret from the others, because their actions will still be dominated by their concern for each other.
Because it also applies to heterosexuals, this is a tough problem that is totally independent of whether someone promotes or opposes other aspects of homosexual life – like same-sex marriage – in open society. But I fear that its dissection will always bring in side charges of ‘homophobia’ etc to divert discussion of the real factors involved in having lovers share a foxhole.
rebanesruminations.com 
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