In the rush to bring sexual preference equality to our military it seems to have been overlooked that many countries in the world do not share our government’s liberal views on the subject, particularly the Muslim ones in the Middle East where we have a number of key bases to protect out vital interests. Some religious hardliners in the region are of the opinion that homosexuality is a crime punishable by death:
The death penalty is currently in place in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mauritania, northern Nigeria, Sudan, and Yemen. In Afghanistan it is a crime that that is punished with fines and a prison sentence. The legal situation in the United Arab Emirates is unclear. In many Muslim nations, such as Bahrain, Qatar, Algeria and the Maldives, homosexuality is punished with jail time, fines, or corporal punishment. -Wikipedia
The Saudis in particular walk a very tight line with religious hardliners and this may well be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Saudi leaders are still reeling, arguably more than is publicly known, from the WikiLeaks disclosures. Any ‘private’ talks between the US and the Saudis or other Muslim nations on this issue seem unlikely.
It will be interesting to see how the gay rights policies of Washington liberals play out in the real world on this matter.
Dan Spencer
Moe Lane
Dan McLaughlin
Jeff Emanuel
It sounds like a reason to support DADT nt
mikerazar (Diary) Sunday, December 19th at 2:51PM EDT (link)We have a nation to save, people.
oops, I meant an argument for repeal. Who cares what the saudis think! nt
mikerazar (Diary) Sunday, December 19th at 3:04PM EDT (link)We have a nation to save, people.
I would generally agree
Scope (Diary) Sunday, December 19th at 6:47PM EDT (link)with “who cares what the Saudis think” if we didn’t have troops in the regions. I remember seeing a picture, on Drudge I think, where a gay Iranian male was hanging from a crane, because he was gay. Mike, isn’t that a little cavelier? Of course we could have the gays not serving in the Muslim hot spots in the world. Wouldn’t that go a long way to winning the wars we are currently engaged in?
I don't think that it would, actually
aesthete (Diary) Sunday, December 19th at 6:56PM EDT (link)There’s already a whole litany of excuses that Al-Qaeda has at the ready for why it is attacking the Western world that it can rely on (support for Israel, colonization, etc), and one more difference won’t change much. Nothing short of a caliphate where gays, fornicators and Jews are hanging off of lampposts would would change their minds, and I doubt that the average AQ recruitee is on the fence concerning said issues. There are good reasons to oppose DADT, but this one is somewhat akin to leftists who say that we will be safer if the rest of the world “loves” us.
“It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.”
-P.J. O’Rourke
Fair question.
mikerazar (Diary) Monday, December 20th at 10:46AM EDT (link)I don’t mean to be cavalier. But the demands of Islam are endless. Forget gays. A Saudi woman caught in bed with an American GI is in deep ****. I don’t care what other cultures eat or how they pray or their silly folk dances and costumes. But, to me, the best measure of civilized behavior is how ordinary girls and women are treated. Here in America, we have pre teen and teenage girls pretty much dictating the culture and that’s just fine with me as compared with the Islamic way.
We can’t win those wars unless either we or they change the fundamental way we look at the world.
We have a nation to save, people.
Gee, I thought our troops were in Afghanistan
aesthete (Diary) Sunday, December 19th at 4:53PM EDT (link)to preserve our autonomy and freedom, not to restrict it. We didn’t ask occupied Japan or Germany if they were alright with our use of inferior races in our military. We didn’t query the USSR as to its feelings concerning Christianity in the military. While I’m against repealing DADT, I could care less how Muslims “feel” about such a potential change in policy. It doesn’t bother me at all when a bunch of savages don’t like what we’re doing as far as foreign and domestic policy go.
“It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.”
-P.J. O’Rourke
Winning hearts and minds
SirGladiator (Diary) Sunday, December 19th at 8:20PM EDT (link)Last I checked it was still a good idea to win hearts and minds in the Middle East. Going out of our way to offend them simply to make it easier for a few folks in the military to practice sodomy doesn’t seem like a very good idea to me, but obviously it does to the liberals. Of course I wouldn’t compare a race, or Christianity, to sodomy either, so I guess that’s why I come to a different conclusion on this issue than many on the left. Hopefully when we win the White House in 2012 our new President will repair the damage this causes, by repealing the repeal of DADT, and showing the entire world that we do take morals and decency seriously once again.
By your logic, we shouldn't allow Jews in the US military...
H (Diary) Sunday, December 19th at 8:40PM EDT (link)P!ss poor argument you got there. And I’m against DADT for all persuasions. I don’t even believe military personnel should be asking or telling about race or religion.