Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said Sunday that he should not have stayed silent after the audience at a GOP debate booed a gay soldier serving in Iraq. The Georgia businessman told ABC's "This Week" that it would have been "appropriate" for him to have defended the soldier. None of the candidates on stage at the Sept. 22 forum responded to the boos. "In retrospect, because of the controversy it has created and because of the different interpretations that it could have had, yes, that probably — that would have been appropriate," Cain said, when asked if...

Take a break from looking for black helicopters, fellow Extremists! It's short story time here at Absolutely Nobama! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Now, when Drill Instructor gives you the command, you will open your footlocker and break out your shower crap and and your shining crap. Port side shower up, starboard side shine 'em up. Ready....Move!" The one thing Senior Drill Instructor Sergeant Brown hated was slow recruits. Slow recruits, if allowed to graduate, became slow Marines. If Sgt. Brown could say anything with 100% certainty after two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, slow Marines were a danger to themselves and...

Obama militants shoot warrior tradition first, ask questions later "We used to conform behavior to the military. Now we're conforming the military to behavior." Rep. Allen B. West, Florida Republican, belled the cat neatly during a hearing last Friday on the military's breakneck pace in implementing the new lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) law. Mr. West, whose 20-plus years in the U.S. Army included combat commands, noted that he and others at Fort Bragg had to endure "sensitivity training" in the 1990s. It didn't enhance the "warrior ethos," he recalled. What became clear at the hearing of the House...

American combat troops will get sensitivity training directly on the battlefield about the military’s new policy on gays instead of waiting until they return to home base in the United States, the senior enlisted man in Afghanistan said Thursday. The Pentagon is launching an extensive force-wide program to ease the process of integrating open homosexuals into the ranks, including into close-knit fighting units. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Marvin Hill, the top enlisted man in Afghanistan where 100,000 U.S. troops are deployed, said that the sessions on respecting gays’ rights will go right down to the forward operating bases, where troops...

Newly released research into Virginian George Washington’s decisions as Commander of the Continental Army tells us the question of what to do about homosexuals in our military ranks has been with us since before we were a nation. During the awful winter of 1777/ 1778 with his Army hunkered down at Valley Forge trying to merely survive, Washington was forced to divert some of his valuable time to deal with a Court Martial of one of his officers, a homosexual caught “attempting to commit sodomy” with subordinate soldier. The officer’s troubles began with an accusation from another officer who was...

The headlines said that the Pentagon’s homosexual exclusion policy had been repealed. “‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ is repealed by Senate; bill awaits Obama’s signing,” was the headline over the front page article in The Washington Post by Ed O’Keefe. But the article went on to note, in the 22nd paragraph, that top military leaders must find or certify that changes to the current policy “must not affect troop readiness, cohesion or military recruitment and retention.” How is this possible when Marine Commandant General Jim Amos has already said that the changes would cost lives? Calling repeal a major distraction, Amos...

A U.S. Marine Corps sergeant in action in Sangin, Afghanistan on Nov. 9, 2010. (Defense Department photo/Lance Cpl. Dexter S. Saulisbury, U.S. Marine Corps) (CNSNews.com) - 66.5 percent of U.S. Marine combat forces surveyed by a special Defense Department working group said that putting homosexuals in their units would hurt their effectiveness in the field, and 47.8 percent of Marines in combat units specifically said putting homosexuals in their units would hurt their effectiveness “in an intense combat situation.”The U.S. Congress voted last week to repeal the law—commonly known as Don’t Ask, Don’ Tell—that barred homosexuals from serving in the military.Earlier...

Complete title: Military Should ‘Expressly Prohibit’ Heterosexuals from Using Separate Showers from Homosexuals After Repeal of DADT, Says DOD Working Group A special Defense Department working group appointed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates has recommended that the military should “expressly prohibit” heterosexuals from using separate showers, bathrooms and bunking facilities from homosexuals when the repeal of the law banning homosexuals from the military goes into effect.The working group has also recommended that commanding officers be left with the authority to exempt individuals from using the same showers, bathrooms and living facilities as homosexuals, but only on a “case-by-case” basis.The House...

Obama's social experiment would have devastating effects on the finest military force the world has ever known. At issue is a pending vote in the Senate on repealing Section 654 of Title X of the U.S. Code. This law, on the books since 1993, states: "The presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability." The authors acknowledge that 67 percent of all Marines, more than...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) does not see a political lift for President Obama in the imminent repeal of the Clinton-era policy banning gays from serving openly in the military. “I think the people who are supportive of 'Don’t ask, don’t tell’ were probably supportive of the president to begin with,” he told reporters in the Capitol. “Most Americans, I think, hope it works out. I certainly do. I think it is going to be problematic and whatever problems it has, [Obama] owns,” Graham added.

Washington (CNN) -- Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey said Tuesday that he has "serious concerns" over the impact of a repeal of the military's controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding gay and lesbian service members. "I do have serious concerns about the impact of the repeal of the law on ... a force that's fully engaged in two wars and has been at war for eight and a half years," he told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He agreed, however, that it would be fair to characterize his opinion as not being "strongly" for or...