US Army in Catch 22 on Gays Issue
By: Lance Winslow
Many of those who wish to fight for our country come from families with strong ideals of freedom. Most of them are strong Christians in fact. There in lies the real problem with the US Army recruiting. To be allowed to come on campus to recruit at many colleges they are asked to be careful around the issue of Gays in the military. Yet to recruit a Christian Soldier this is a little tough, for if you allow gays in the military this goes against their belief system and if they are heterosexual, they want nothing to do with being in the same shower with someone who might be gay, but will not tell?
But, if the military does not go easy on the gay issue of military service then they will not be allowed on campus to recruit. Meanwhile the ultra liberal professors are brain washing the kids the other direction stating that war is evil, Bush is evil and this war is dishonorable to our nation. This makes it difficult to recruit. I asked an Army soldier who was in the military if the gays in the military bothered him. He said at first it did and he almost did not join. But he wanted to serve his country. Now that he is in, it still bothers him he said but only a little. In other words he almost did not join because of the gays in the military. How many others are not joining or signing up for this reason.
If the military changes its policy and says it is okay for gays to openly be gay in the military then more of the campuses will open their doors to the military, however if they do that they may alienate their hard core target profile of those who believe in our country enough to serve it. Yet when discussing this issue with a Professor he went into an anti-Bush tirade as he was what the call in California a Westside Liberal. He said if they come on campus for any reason he will personally protest and hold rallies against the military.
I thought this was interesting as if the military back tracts on its gay policy, the Colleges and Universities will only pick another issue and hit the streets hard with mega phone in hand. If they military does not change the policy they will not be allowed on campus to recruit. So either way they are damned if they do and damned if they do not. If the military changes its policy then there are issues with the straight shooter heterosexuals signing up for fear of being called gay or simply homophobic while in the showers and close proximity of other soldiers. Thus the big problem now is if we do not get more recruits then we will have staffing issues and need to downsize military or start the “D” word, which generally politicians frown on. If we do institute a draft it will in fact be the second major issue to illegal immigration in the next Presidential election. Army and even the Navy are worried that without the draft we maybe vulnerable to our ability to serve our political will or defend our peoples. Think about it as the saga continues and the war over just shooting straight and being straight continues.
Lance Winslow