(Note: I have family members and friends that are openly and proudly gay. I am openly and proudly straight. Differences in lifestyle preferences should not tip the balance of protection to any one group, nor limit anyone’s ability to express an opinion of dissension from another’s viewpoint. Nuff said.)
I usually won’t venture into the subject of homosexuality but a recent news story triggered and reinforced past thoughts about blind adherence to ‘”political correctness” and the threat it poses to those providing for our national security and personnel protection. In December of 2010, the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy that had been in effect for 17 years was repealed by Congress and approved by President Obama. I understand societal mores changing over time and had let this policy change meld with my personal stance of “Don’t Know, Don’t Care” (DKDC). No problem yet until I see that the army will be mandating gay sensitivity courses for all personnel, even for those on the battlefield! (Here is a link to the official Army website about the training).
Now for my tirade! I am truly worried that our brave military personnel are being put at risk by both the progressive lurch of the current administration and their lackey bureaucrats in charge of our fighting forces. A prime example of my concern that political correctness is hobbling our military leadership is when General George Casey was seemingly more concerned about diversity than the victims of the Ft. Hood massacre.
If gay sensitivity training is a requirement to accommodate gay service personnel and positively affects the personal beliefs of non-gay service personnel, well then, that’s great. But why in hell does it take precedent over a soldier maintaining fighting focus on the battlefield? Even if the training only involves off-duty time of our soldiers in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other military installations around the world, I suggest it is distracting in the least, damaging in fact, for those most closely engaged with our enemies. I would not want a lecture on social political correctness when my job is to engage and kill those who would kill us first.
Imagine this. A suicide bomber is assigned to enter a military base and kill as many US soldiers as possible. Bad enough that we give them barracks or cafeterias or hospital wards to target. Imagine the glee a Jihadist bomber would get from detonating in a “gay sensitivity training” classroom, given that they both reject gays and claim there are no gay people in Islam (snicker). What a message!
To avoid being called “homosensitive” ( I reject the term homophobe) I’ll take this a bit broader. There are countless stories of female prison guards being overpowered by obviously more powerful detainees. One I recall is former linebacker, Brian Nichols, overpowering a single 51 year-old female guard, then killing a judge and two others in the courtroom. This is a result of politically correctness mandating how we hire corrections personnel and assign them to guard threats to our society.
If being politically correct is more important then the safety of our soldiers, our police or our assigned protectors, I’ll choose honesty any day.
