Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
or, How To Avoid Dying In The Closet
Dr. Robert Beeman
author, No More Time For Sorrow,
“I believe in Sex and Death – two things that come but once in a man’s life,
but at least after death you’re not nauseous.”
Woody Allen, The Sleeper, 1973
The only issue that should be driving Don't Ask Don't Tell is Mission Effectiveness. The only arbiter of the relationship between gays, lesbians, and straight troops is the degree to which that relationship supports our various missions.
No one should participate in this policy decision except our senior military commanders. Our military services should decide the issue based on how they feel combat efficiency will be best served. The only criteria for deciding that issue should be the efficiency and safety of our troops in the field.
I care not a single bit what gays and lesbians outside our armed forces think about it. I don't care whether they feel bad, or good, or slighted, or empowered, or discriminated, or fearful, or angry, or betrayed.
Why?
Because they are not in harm's way, nor do they take the back of an American soldier who is in harm's way.
To use our government to try to social-engineer American culture is inappropriate. We’re fighting that out right now at the ballot box. To use it to try to social-engineer our military is egregiously inappropriate. Our military units are not social experiments for some leftist zealot. There are two reasons for this:
1. Each of our soldiers serves at risk of his life. He might be a recruiter in des Moines, but the contract he made with the United States government was to go in harm’s way if ordered.
2. Each of our soldiers is a precious gift to this country from the wellsprings of patriotism and courage in that individual soldier’s own heart.
Nobody has the right to play social checkers with his life or her life, most especially people who have not served and do not serve but stand on the sidelines and wave wands.
Now it may well be that our commanders and our soldiers themselves feel that outing our military gays would be best. I don’t hold an opinion on either side of this question except to note that don’t-ask-don’t-tell seemed to work ok for the past couple of decades. That said, the military should do what it thinks best, but Liberal/progressives should get their power-elitist fingers out of military planning. If the issue is left to our military to decide, whichever path it chooses, I'm confident first priority will be the safety and effectiveness of our troops.
If the issue is left to the civilian leftist progressive power elite to decide, I’m confident that first priority will be their social agenda, and members of their Underclass, our soldiers, will be carelessly thrown at risk to accomplish it.
Why do I suggest this? You have only to look at how the liberal power elite handles airport screening, giving Americans a choice between two shameful and disgusting procedures solely to avoid the Politically INcorrect horror of Profiling, or how they have managed to make a Terrorist Interstate out of our southern border solely to avoid the Politically INcorrect horror of Profiling.
Given those examples, how much do you think these people actually care about the lives of our soldiers when set against the pc bubble in which they live? My current book, No More Time for Sorrow suggests they care not at all. CIA Sheridan Walker must battle a pc administration bent on sacrificing her and her daughter, as well as every US citizen in a potential atom bomb attack, in order to prevent their policies being questioned.
Put plainly, I am not confident that my current government cares anything at all for the safety of our troops past shoving them into a politically correct straight jacket to show traction to its left-wing power base.
I have gay friends who currently serve, several in combat. I have gay friends hate our military, you know, assholes.
Between those two poles lies a body of thinking that needs to be driven solely by the safety of the children now dying for us overseas. I'm 65, too old to fight, too slow to run away. They're all kids to me and God bless them, every one.
All rights reserved. (c) Dr. Robert Beeman, 2011
This blog post may be reproduced with the following information complete:
Dr Robert Beeman is the Author of No More Time for Sorrow, sequel forthcoming. He is the publisher and CEO of TeethinYourLeg, Inc.. A prolific blogger, author and speaker, you may find addtional information at: http://http://www.drrobertbeeman.com/ and http://http://www.teethinyourleg.com/
E mail and contact info:
Robert Beeman, BA, M.A., Ph.D, CPL , CDL [a]
543 New Baltimore
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