General Peter Pace: Let me be clear, my upbringing dictates that I am still a rabid homophobe

Ummm maybe the soon-to-retire chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, should have just declined Senator Tom Harkin’s invitation to amend his earlier remarks about gays in the military. It seems the General might’ve done better to have just kept his mouth shut and retired, knowing the dust would eventually settle and he’d soon be just another holier-than-thou bad memory in a very long line of bad memories over these past 6-plus years. But unfortunately for the General, he actually thought he could clarify his earlier remarks, redeem himself, and go out in a blaze of pious glory, but oops, his homophobia got the best of him - again:

"We need to be very precise then, about what I said wearing my stars and being very conscious of it," he added. "And that is, very simply, that we should respect those who want to serve the nation but not through the law of the land, condone activity that, in my upbringing, is counter to God's law."

[…]

Pace said he would be supportive of efforts to revisit the Pentagon's policy so long as it didn't violate his belief that sex should be restricted to a married heterosexual couple.

[…]

"I would be very willing and able and supportive" to changes to the policy "to continue to allow the homosexual community to contribute to the nation without condoning what I believe to be activity -- whether it to be heterosexual or homosexual -- that in my upbringing is not right," Pace said.

Now did you get that? What the General actually meant was that he is more than willing to put up with those icky nasty immoral gays and lesbians who join the military and put their lives on the line for this country just as long as we don’t create laws that would treat them as equal citizens if and when they come back alive and in one piece. You see, the good General’s upbringing tells him that God’s law would be violated if we were to treat these brave men and women with the respect and equality they fought to ensure for everyone else. And we can’t go offending the good General’s upbringing, now can we? I mean he is a good Christian and all ---- right?

What the hell?

Well let me tell you something General, I don’t give a flip what your fricken upbringing tells you is right or wrong, moral or immoral. You are more than welcome to believe whatever the hell you want, but when it comes to setting public policy your upbringing is no more a deciding factor than mine.

Morality is a relative term sir. What do you say to the people whose upbringing tells them that your participation in conducting an illegal war in Iraq, which has killed almost one million people, maimed, wounded and dislocated millions more, tortured countless thousands, and in general brutalized and destroyed a once sovereign, secular country, wreaking havoc and disgrace in the world for your own country is “immoral and counter to God’s law”?

And what do you say to the people whose upbringing tells them that someone who dishonors 60,000 gay and lesbian troops on active duty and jeopardizes national security by supporting a discriminatory policy that denies people the right to be who they are and serve openly in the armed forces is “immoral and counter to God’s law”?

Oh and General, how about you explain to all those mothers and fathers who’ve lost gay and lesbian children serving this country how your upbringing deems their beloved dead children immoral. I’m sure they'll completely understand once you explain to them how your upbringing was so much better than theirs.

Have a good long retirement sir. You should have quit while you were ahead.