This should be changed. It should be a changed to “just don’t fuck and we don’t give a fuck.” I will probably always come across as a little homophobic. Being raised in one of the more conservative parts and times of the world, homosexuality is something I tend to relegate to the times of the Greeks and some over populated types of animals. On the other hand the military is an institution that lumps tough women and scores and scores of even tougher men together for months maybe years on end. They are lumped together to make war, not love. I remember this lecture from Alain de Botton about employers and sex. Essentially employers don’t want people having sex not because of the complications or the relationships but simply because the employer needs the employee focused on the given and unnatural task of labour and not on the innate and natural task of arranging for going into labour.
The Congress is worried when it finds out that 13000 gay men and women have been discharged from the military just because they happen to be gay. This is 13000 people less that could be discharging their weapons at the Taliban, terrorists and Russians. Given that a typical military weapon can discharge around 800 rounds per minute this means an infantry loss of 10 million bullets a minute not fired. If these people who volunteered to murder for their country were still hard at work, the military would be able to kill the entire world in around 10 hours with just the gays!
Wear the uniform correctly, kill who and when I want and keep your dick in your pants when on duty. These are my only conditions for a soldier of any sexual predilection. I would lay this rule down indiscriminately. Issues like HIV have to be addressed as a separate issue but again this is another universal norm.
“Sailors wives” and cabin boys are euphemisms that the navy has kept hidden away for longer than ships went over the oceans, when the greatest of fleets puttered around the coasts of the Mediterranean. Even in land campaigns squires enjoyed a certain, air of mystery as they served the generals in the tents at night while the soldiers had to satisfy themselves with pillage and the raping of village wenches.
It’s modern times in Afghanistan, so modern that generals are following in the steps of Alexander and going head to head with a nation where “every man is an Alexander”. The great Persian knew that a bit of man-love did not soften fighting spirit so perhaps it is time the new invaders from the West adopt his proven tactics?
