Keep to the topic at hand (which we graciously are keeping open) and knock off the personal comments.
I spent 10 years in the Marine Infantry as both an enlisted guy and officer. I think this is much ado about nothing. There are gay men serving today, there were gay men serving 100 years ago. No matter what the strategy or political policy, there will always be issues. There will be issues where a gay servicemember slips up and makes advances to another servicemember (just like happens in service environments where females and males work together). There will be issues where service members harass a fellow member known to be gay.
I just don't see why this should be some monumental threat. It's not.
As for the government imposing their values on us, Al - that's the very definition of government. Laws and policies are nothing more than values imposed. You just don't happen to agree with this one. Are their lots of service members up in arms about this particular topic? Sure. But as you know, the folks that hang out on internet message boards are there because they care intensely about the topics being discussed. This particular issue is one that, I suspect, you could change policies today, and after a month or two of intense media attention, things would normalize to the point folks in the military barely gave it a thought.
There are some valid points in this thread, on all sides. I don't know how a gay male lives alongside his peers in an all-male unit? It must be tough. But if they can do it without crossing any lines, why should you or I care? That person might be the best machine gunner in my company, or a great fire team or squad leader. That's really all I'd care about.
I don't have the energy to argue on this at the moment. Just note that it is not the mission of government to impose its values on us. The whole founding of this country is predicated on not having a government jam its value structure on the population. The present irony is that a system set up to prevent tyrannies of the majority has become captive to tyrannies of the minority. Read the Federalist Papers, Common Cause, etc., etc.
as for experience base, I can relate a whole different set of experiences accumulated over the course of 20+ years in the military...including gay officers systematically raping enlisted in large numbers.
the issue in my mind isn't ending DADT. they have no plan for executing this and they have not been succinct about the bounds. anyone who has had to live with these military as crucible for social engineering projects knows how fouled up they become largely because the engineers have a bad blueprint with way too many pages attached. integrating women is a great case in point. all for it....but it became so politicized that famous, beloved Admirals who were willing to take a stand on below par aviators at the boat had their careers ended at substantial cost to the country, squadron personnel who honored their commitments having to shoulder the extra load when pregnancies sprouted 2-3 weeks before cruise, ships hushing up prostitution rings being run out of the Captain's barge, certain in the middle of nowhere islands incurring the highest female enlistment rates in the Navy due to "income advantages", unqualified promotions to senior positions, political games being played with an evaluation system that is supposed to move the best forward. it's not that there aren't terrific female pilots or female leaders. there are. it's that the intention all along was to suffuse other, political objectives into the process - at a terrific cost to the integrity of the system. the do gooders could care less about the personal and community costs incurred on the merry path to "goodness". the same thing is gonna happen here. it's gonna end up being a mess. but you'll never know it because the press and the political interests are going to prevent any sort of open conversation on this.
People died along the way. The political elites absolutely DO NOT CARE. that's what gets me angry. I have lived it. The do gooders who pass a law and then march off to the next great cause haven't.
all of this end states in events like Ft Hood that the power elites cavalierly word-smith away as the President tried to do last year. but no one really cares about the people who died in Texas....they're part of a "process" of social enlightenment....
 }})
