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Creep of the Week: Gen. Peter Pace

Unless you've been living in an undisclosed location with Dick Cheney, you've probably heard about the shit storm kicked up when Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. Peter Pace called homosexuality "immoral" a couple weeks ago.
More specifically, he said he supported "don't ask, don't tell" and believes "homosexual acts between individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts."
"I do not believe that the armed forces of the United States are well served by saying through our policies that it's OK to be immoral in any way," he said.
Them are awfully strong words for a man whose name so closely resembles Peter Pan. Yet, he's entitled to his opinion and it shouldn't surprise anyone that he isn't going to apologize for it.
But Pace, following the trend of high-profile figures getting into hot water for being blatantly homophobic, is sorry he ever opened his mouth.
In a March 13 press release, Gen. Pace said. "People have a wide range of opinions on this sensitive subject. The important thing to remember is that we have a policy in effect, and the Department of Defense has a statutory responsibility to implement that policy."
Even if that policy is bat shit crazy and simply stokes the fears of those in charge (much like, oh, Bush's entire foreign policy).
"'Don't Ask Don't Tell' allows individuals to serve this nation," Pace continued, "it does not make a judgment about the morality of individual acts."
Not true. DADT does make "a judgment about the morality of individual acts" or it wouldn't exist. It's based on the premise that homosexuality is so awful, so damaging; individuals serving our country can't even talk about it.
And while Pace claims the policy "allows individuals to serve this nation," in 2006, 612 people were dismissed under DADT.
"Especially today, when the military faces well-documented recruiting and retention woes, the loss of even one skilled service member is one too many," said C. Dixon Osburn, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
"In expressing my support for the current policy, I also offered some personal opinions about moral conduct," Pace said. "I should have focused more on my support of the policy and less on my personal moral views."
I can think of some other things Pace might have focused on besides the big gay monster in the closet.
In a March 17 column in the Detroit Free Press, Leonard Pitts, Jr. wrote, "[F]our years into the Iraq debacle, there is painful irony in hearing the president's top military adviser give a lecture on morality. Team Bush misled the nation into war against the wrong enemy. It hospitalized wounded Americans in squalor and filth. It left the people we 'liberated' without electricity, gasoline or medical services for months turning to years because of its failure to plan. How moral is that?"

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Topics: Opinions
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