What's good about not having gays in the military

Does God work in mysterious ways? I’ll never know, but perhaps that’s why the ways are mysterious.

I had just finished a rather long post on why GEN Pace got in trouble for stepping outside his lane and discussing his personal opinion on the immorality of homosexual acts, not –as some would have you believe—the immorality of homosexuals. Whether a man can be separated from his acts may be a discussion for another time; maybe he truly cannot.

I discussed why you should stay, “in your lane” during interviews, when it’s okay to go “off the record” despite what we learn at PAO school (you’re never “off the record”), and why this all changes the higher up the chain of command you move.

Anyway, I had all my links lined up, my thoughts down in electrons, and I hit preview to view my work. Then, somewhere between “preview” and purgatory everything disappeared…for good.

At that point I gave up. I said I’m not redoing that entire post.

At then I realized why after I read an email from my boss, where he talked about briefing the CG of Army Public Affairs today. One of the things I like about my boss is that he’s always upbeat. In his email he talked about briefing the crew back in DC yesterday about our live broadcast from Daegu the other day. He started the briefing with the words, “let me tell you what’s GOOD in Army Public Affairs”.

That’s when it hit me about the furor over GEN Pace’s remarks. That the discussion over whether a man’s nature can be separate from his acts isn’t a discussion for another time. It’s a discussion that we can afford to have now.

It’s a discussion we can afford because of who we are as a nation. It’s a discussion that we can afford because those that live here, straight, gay or otherwise, don’t have to live in fear that a pile of trash is going to explode in the mall, killing 17 people, 8 of whom are children.

It’s a discussion we can afford because we truly do live in a nation that serves as a beacon for others, an inspiration and a dream. We live in a nation where despite our problems, we can debate the nature of man and its fitness for military service.

We’re a nation where our leaders can waste time on problems like this because the nation isn’t under the immediate and real threat of destruction.

Of course, I’d rather they get back to debating how we’re going to take care of our people at Walter Reed at other places.