02.03
Today we wake up to The New York Times advising of Colin Powell’s weighing in on the “don’t ask don’t tell” controversy in the military and President Obama’s announced intention to revoke it. General Powell opines like the rest of the world should: the policy must be revoked. Every other military force in the western world allows, some even compel every citizen–gays included–to serve in the military, yet we pick and choose.
The world’s last remaining super-power subordinates military needs to taste. It should not surprise anyone who understands the taboos in organized religion and its influence on the American discourse that our legislators and the military find the subject of sexuality distasteful. The prevailing tacit understanding is that all our habits are tolerable in secret, in the quiet of our personal space, but the nation finds it distasteful to discuss them in public. Our elected officials prefer to retain the status quo, avoiding at all cost the civilized discussion of human differences in public.
Any conversation of sexuality is always controversial. This controversy underscores our inability as a nation to cope with heterogeneous human traits in general. We expect everyone to be part of a homogeneous society that, more often than not, shuns individual make-up. We cringe on sexuality as a subject for open discussion. Rather than approaching the subject, we resort to silencing any discussion of it by citing biblical passages, finding support for homogeneous human behavior in the same books that call for slavery, stoning, maiming, blinding, and all the rest of the juicy stuff presented in the ageless epic. Our news often bring to the fore zealous groups, rooted in religious conceptions, that harp on the preaching of sexual abstinence as the cure for all evil. We just don’t get it. Man–in the species sense, not just the male gender sense that would exclude the females–is a sexual being.
In the logical sense, it is not too difficult to understand that the military needs bodies to enlist. Diminishing the pool of potential enlisters by removing able-bodied individuals who find it worthwhile to enlist and put their life on the line for the country does not make good military or business sense. With our nation’s military needs, we should open up the universe of potential candidates to Martians if they want to enlist.
Recruitment and enlistment should only be a process of physical and mental ability to serve. It should not look beyond physical prowess and mental acuity. These military authorities who argue against allowing the enlistment of gays are displaying very little faith in their ability to shape soldiers and the training process’ ability to distinguish between the able and the unable recruits.
Arguably, the military will make able bodied men and women of anyone stable enough, healthy enough, and strong enough to carry a rifle. It was a big deal to open military service to blacks. It was a big deal to open the front lines to women who wanted to fight. Whether enlisted personnel are bisexual, gay, straight or transgendered should be of little concern when the training will weed out everyone unfit to do the work the military expects of recruits.
While initially we may have an issue with cross-dressers because at first glance their individual predilection may not suit the military’s gender specific dress code, these individuals may well choose to exchange their dress preference for the higher goal of joining the military. They may well exchange one peculiar habit for another, rewarded by the honor of wearing with pride the uniform of the US Armed Forces.
The US Armed Forces need large numbers of recruits to sign up lest our country fails to meet the ever- increasing demand for troops. A large group of enlisted individuals is required to police and fight wars across the globe. Furthermore, if the film Avatar is an indication of things to come, the US Armed Forces will be called upon to fight too in neighboring galaxies, as the Pentagon does the bidding of large corporations, continuing the entrepreneurial’s crusade for revenues beyond our lifetime past our galactic frontiers.
“Everyone welcome” should be the military’s motto. General Powell is right. President Obama is correct in targeting the revocation of this ludicrous policy. Everyone able and willing to render their life for the country should be allowed to do so. It’s the essence of equality. It’s the American way.
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