Military Intelligence
03 13 2007So Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace got into a bit of a pickle while discussing the ridiculous “don’t ask, don’t tell” compromise that the radical-right pressured Bill Clinton into back in the early days of his presidency.
“My upbringing is such that I believe that there are certain things, certain types of conduct that are immoral,” Pace told the Chicago Tribune. “I believe that military members who sleep with other military members’ wives are immoral in their conduct.”
Pace also told the paper, “I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral, and that we should not condone immoral acts.”
While I applaud those politicians, Republican and Democrat alike, who’ve come forward to say that homosexuality is not immoral (John Warner, R-VA, you go girl!), but the subtler eyebrow-raiser in Pace’s nonsense has passed without comment.
“I believe that military members who sleep with other military members’ wives are immoral in their conduct.”
I’m not arguing with his stance on adultery (nor am I condoning it — I just believe that’s for the couple to decide), but I wonder why he specifies wives instead of spouses? Does our Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman not realize that women are now allowed in the Armed Forces? Or does he assume that all women in the army must be lesbians and therefore have only wives (in those states allowing such unions) and not husbands? Women in the armed forces didn’t happen last week, last month, last decade… Just what year does Pace think this is? How long will it take him to catch up to 2007?
Our current leadership handles the Iraq mess with a Vietnam era mentality. And let’s face it, that mentality was out-of-date 45 years ago. Pace’s comments only underscore just how slow they are to learn.
