Grey Havoc said:
A little late in the day, one could argue.
F-14D said:
Having been around when this was really hitting naval aviation, I can say that Lehman is exactly right. For a prime example of what went on and the fallout, you need to look no further than what happened to CDR Robert Stumpf (Google the story) or Admiral Stanley Arthur to see it all in a nutshell.
More like a parting shot than one across the bow, after all said and done. It's always seemed strange to me how far out of one's way one has to go to make any sort of integration or human rights matter an issue, meanwhile revelling at how obscure the simplicity of basic respect has become during centuries of organized and structural discrimination. If the ensuing attempts at governing rules are convoluted and amenable to abuse - abuse that I do not condone towards anyone - it is still not cause for me to romanticize a "better, more simple" past, but recognize these failings as a frustration that can and should be addressed in a realistic context. In the best traditions of World's armies they are apolitical, thus the "correctness" of them is rooted deeper and wider, in their service and sacrifice for (
and by) all.
pathology_doc said:
If women and gays in the US air arm (AF and naval/Marine) think they have problems with persecution now, just wait until they have to eject over Iran - hope their E&E is up to scratch!
Well, if it's a female pilot it's more likely to be a cynical ransom situation coupled with inexplicably inane propaganda, reflecting their current crony corruption - what's basically left of their brand of theocracy and regional ambitions. The Iranian revolution is as much a modern movement as based on interpretations of Qu'ranic scripture, the political variant of Shia Islam was inspired only in the 1950's and 1960's by ideas the likes of Ali Shariati picked up at Sorbonne University (
from Sartre, et. al.). Therefore while private gender "morals" are at least publicly strictly enforced and stratified (
never mind "temporary marriage" brand prostitution and the predictable antics of youth) women do make up a significant portion of the country's police, paramilitaries, army and economic/academic life in general. It might not reflect well on their professed self-image if abuse was predicated on gender alone. Surprisingly transgender identities are recognized in Iran, albeit bafflingly the Iranian president recently also alleged that there are "no gays" in his country (
a statement met with derisive laughter as it was made at a US university campus if I remember correctly).
It is probably AQs, Haqqanis and Talebs who could be more "unhinged" in their actions (
but they always are, so what the qualitative difference in the potential for horrific violence might be is largely academical) when faced with a female and/or gay warfighter. How the latter quality might be readily apparent to them I do not know, as I doubt any army will begin issuing "fab" uniforms or LGBT shoulder patches anytime soon (
... well, the Carabinieri uniform was designed by Valentino and are rather flash, but that's another matter). What is certain though that AQs, Haqqanis and Talebs are not going to respect the US as their adversary more even if they were made to know that the US military has discharged ~14.000 alledgedly non-straight soldiers during DADT or whether "un-PC" battle cries are allowed. Logic would state then, that any energy put into "persecution" i.e. discrimination in the US is an effort wasted and entirely antithetical to deflating and defeating the extremist threat.
