The indoctrination has begun. With the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) that will allow gays to serve openly in the military, training materials have gone out to the four service branches. The first focus of the training is for high senior level leadership and unit commanders. Also, combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan will receive the training before returning back to home station.
I have mentioned some of my concerns in previous posts (here and here) about how this is going to be a one-way street. Straight service members are going to have to accept the gay people, but there is no tolerance training for the gay members.
According to the briefing materials, a recruiter may not refuse gays entry into a service even if it is against the recruiter’s religious beliefs.
“Marines are expected to obey lawful orders and could be subject to discipline or adverse administrative action if they refuse orders, even if such refusal is based on strong, sincerely held, moral or religious beliefs,” the briefing states.
Back when Iraq invaded Kuwait and we started to send troops over to Southwest Asia there were several cases (approximately 500) of people who refused to deploy based on their religious or moral beliefs. These people were known as conscientious objectors (CO). There were a few that tried to “work the system” to get out of deploying, but many of the COs truly felt going to war was against their religious or moral doctrine. For the men and women who were found to truly hold these objector beliefs, they were discharged with honor. One underlying commonality for many of these folks was the leftist groups that provided them with the resources to fight for and to establish the service member’s objector status. Nearly every group that supported the COs was some form of peace activist group with a decidedly leftist bent.
Flash ahead 20 years. The repeal of DADT is going to place many members in a situation where they have to decide whether they are going to obey the orders of men (and women) who have instituted this new policy or the “orders” of God, who has written that homosexuality is an abomination. The problem for these objectors is there is no out for them. The training materials state that “Soldiers may not seek an early discharge because they do not want to live or serve with gays.” It is OK to object to war, which is the primary role of the US military, based on one’s religious or moral beliefs, but it is not OK to object to homosexual behavior if you have an objection to their lifestyle based on those some beliefs. There are policies and procedures in place to accommodate the CO, but nothing but heartache and trouble if you are opposed to the repeal of DADT.
There are some on the left who are not happy with the status of the repeal of DADT. Oh, they are happy the repeal has happened, but they are not happy with speed of enactment of the new rules.
“By and large, the material (training materials, PACNW Righty adds) are on target,” said Aubrey Sarvis [the executive director of the Service members Legal Defense Network]. “Where we take exception is with the timeline that the Army has articulated for completing this training as late August. We believe training can be wrapped up by the end of the next month, especially given the fact that there will be an additional 60 days for training that may take place after certification.”
Good grief, are you people never happy? You finally force an unpopular decision down the military’s throat and then expect them to throw open the doors next week. It takes nearly a year for everyone to complete a wide variety of annually required training as it is. Leaves, deployments, hospitalizations, temporary duty assignments, etc, get in the way of timely completion. And throw in inherent resistance to change that is woven into the fabric of the military it takes time to get something this momentous accomplished. You have already forced this issue, you got your damn victory, give it some time, or you are asking for trouble.
Sidebar: for those who say the repeal of DADT is popular in the military are dead wrong. I don’t care what stat you put in front of me (“torture numbers, and they’ll confess to anything”, Gregg Easterbrook). I spent 27.5 years in the military and the majority of folks DO NOT support gays serving openly.
One questions for you lefties out there, why would you protect and defend those who object to war based on their beliefs, but you won’t protect the service member who objects to the gay lifestyle for the same reasons. It is called hypocrisy. Getting folks out of the war fit your agenda, but helping out these other folks doesn’t fit your agenda. It would not surprise me if shortly down the road the same people who came to the aid of the war objectors back in 1990 will be lining up to crucify anyone who tries to object to serving with gay service members.
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