Tuesday, March 13, 2007

The Intelectual Weakness of Peter Pace

As the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff you expect Gen. Pace to be a man of strong personal character with excellent leadership skills and a extremely sharp intellect. Unfortunately for Peter, his statements about the don't ask don't tell policy of the US Armed Forces has not displayed his intellectual prowess in the best of lights. It has put his deeply flawed logic and reasoning on display for all to see.

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday that he supports the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" ban on gays serving in the military because homosexual acts "are immoral," akin to a member of the armed forces conducting an adulterous affair with the spouse of another service member.


Wow, just how stupid to you have to be to express this line of flawed reasoning? I must admit I do share part of Gen. Pace's view. I also think that adultery is wrong. This is the about the only thing he has said that makes any sense.

First of all, Adultery is an act, Homosexuality is a state. As example, I am heterosexual. That says nothing about me other than my sexual orientation. I could be a celibate heterosexual, a monogamous heterosexual, a promiscuous heterosexual or, if married, an adulterous heterosexual. Under Gen. Pace's definition, as a heterosexual, I have to undertake a very specific act to be tossed out of the military.

Homosexuals however do not have to do anything, their very existence is, by Pace's definition, 'Immoral' and on par to wilful violation of the marriage bed.

Utterly absurd.

In addition to the deeply flawed logic at play here, there are also practical issues involved. The armed forces bring very few adultery cases forward for prosecution, far fewer than the total number of affairs that occur. If the armed forces were to police marital infidelity with the same passion they use when investigating sexual orientation, based on what I can see of the fidelity of the US troops I know, we would lose tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of troops a year, kicked out for fooling around.

I don't see Gen. Pace proposing that we do this.

Flawed logic, and embracing a double standard, clearly not traits that anyone would want to see in Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

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3 comments:

Lynne said...

They are all recycling the same arguments used in the past against accepting blacks in the military, then accepting women. Eventually they will lose.

Aladin said...

#1. General Pace is one of the best military commanders the United States have had in a while.

#2. His view on homosexuality, as a personal choice not as a "state" is valid, as there is no undisputed evidence accepted world wide that states that homosexuality is natural.

#3. You can't compare the situation with Black and women in the military in the past to the current situation. Gay people know about the UCMJ when they enlist and they are supposed to responsible for their actions, no one forces them to sign on something they don't accept. So all the stats about the 65000 gay dudes and dudettes in the armed forces is weak, because since they won't admit it while on Active duty, there is no way to verify the number.

#4. What happened to freedom of speech?

Jon said...

Zaol

First there is actually an overwhelming scientific and medical understanding that homosexualty is natural and common. Homosexual coupeling is found in a range of species.

and we all have freedom of speeck, but we are also held accountable for what we have said. I never said he can't say that, just that his saying it just displays how stupid he is. He clearly doesnt' understand the science of sexuality and he is sadly lacking in the basic understanding of logic.

I feel that Pace is an average office, not a disaster, not a great one. I do think he, along with a great many others will have the stink of the Iraqi failure follow them into history, but that is another post.