Goys In the Military

There was a bunch of coverage on NPR about how the United States might be jeopardizing its military if it lets gays openly serve.

Personally, the only reason I can think of to continue Don't Ask Don't Tell is that military service is far too long-term a commitment for some eighteen year old who hasn't pulled his head out of his ass yet to make. They have you, if they want you, for eight years. There's no private sector job like that, the free world respects two weeks notice. So if someone is truly fed up with the Army after, say, only five years, being a fake queer for a bit is probably a better exit strategy than fragging a colonel.

Not that I think the people who get ejected from the military these days for singing show tunes are faking it. It's a morally indefensible position the military is in, and I can recall accounts in the news in the past year or two of individuals who served with distinction being outed and cast out a few years before they'd be eligible for a pension.

But back to this patently homophobic argument that allowing the openly gay, lesbian and even (gasp) trans-gender people to serve will reduce the United States Army to a French level of battle-readiness. Yeah, the French do, according to Wikipedia. The UK, Australia, Canada and Israel were mentioned in the last NPR bit I heard, and the first three on that list, I can see the argument. Nobody's been much afraid of the UK for a half century or more, and nobody, and I mean, nobody, was ever afraid of Canada or Australia, except possibly as a place you might be sent if you misbehaved.*

Israel, though. Israel is probably, man for possibly flamboyant man, the baddest military force ever known to man. If out of the closet homosexuals haven't reduced their fighting capacity (and I'm sure their neighbors wish it had), I think that settles it.

It does raise the question, though, if America's military might is due entirely to its smattering of Jewish warriors. I bet we have more Jews than Australia, France and the UK combined, so maybe it's openly Gentile servicemen that hold an army back. ;)



*This applies more to Australia, which was a penal colony originally. Canada isn't much punishment unless you like good beer or actual bacon. I don't know what those people do to pigs up there, but Canadian bacon is just awful.