[Lucky Dog]

Seriously, I think this is all ridiculous. We're fighting a global war on terrorism, but we're spending millions of dollars investigating and dismissing soldiers because of who they have sex with. As far as I'm concerned, gay or straight, if it's not someone in your unit, I don't care.

You, obviously, have never had the responsibility of command and it appears doubtful that you have ever had experience in a combat unit. If you had, your attitude, I suspect, would be considerably different.

When, as a commander at any level in a theater of war, you give an order, you know that the success of your mission and the lives of your people depend upon those orders being faithfully executed. Beyond those you give directly, there are “standing orders and regulations” you rely on being observed. Furthermore, when you receive orders from those in authority over you, you know that your superiors rely on the same level of discipline from you as you rely on from your subordinates. Without this military discipline, death and failure are nearly always inevitable.

The UCMJ is the highest standing order for the military. Those who violate it prove their lack of discipline and, thus, also prove their wiliness to potentially jeopardize the mission as well as their own lives and those around them. Regardless of whether, or not, you are concerned with who is gay and who is straight, it is an issue of military discipline that these individuals adhere to the standards of conduct laid before them.

If queers in the military do not have the discipline to restrain themselves in the area of sexual perversions, what makes you think that they would have the discipline to restrain themselves to following other orders?

[kenboy]

If queers in the military do not have the discipline to restrain themselves in the area of sexual perversions, what makes you think that they would have the discipline to restrain themselves to following other orders?

Once again: the UCMJ makes no distinction between "sexual perversions" committed by homosexuals or heterosexuals. Penetration is penetration, and if you're right -- that soldiers who ignore orders related to sex will ignore other orders -- then I expect we'll need to dismiss tens of thousands of straight soldiers who've had anal (and possibly oral) sex with their wives and girlfriends.

Because, really, if they don't have the discipline to restrain themselves from those sexual perversions with their opposite-sex partners, what makes you think they'd have the discipline to restrain themselves to following other orders?