Sex in the military

2014-03-13;

Various forces in our society,
led and egged on by the media,
and most powerfully acting through the political branches of Congress and the presidency,
have caused the military to accept open homosexuals into service
and steadily enlarge the number of and roles of women.

It is inevitable (I state that as something that should be indisputable)
that that will lead to members of the military having sex with each other.
For someone else who openly states that position,
consider the following comment from "semper39" to the NYT article
“How a Military Sexual Assault Case Foundered”
concerning the BG Jeffrey Sinclair court martial
(the emphasis is added):

The crux of this case, in my opinion,
is the Uniform Code of Military Justice's criminalization of adultery.
It seems from this article (and others that I have read)
that the "victim" never claimed to be sexually assaulted
until she was told that she could be prosecuted for adultery.
Perhaps it is time to de-criminalize adultery in the military
if for no other reason than to encourage that the truth be told.
Another more generalized reason would be that
since it appears that
adultery is no less common in the military
than it is in the civilian world,
why keep on the books a law that is routinely disobeyed.
I learned long ago to never give an order that you know will not be obeyed;
it lessens your authority.
It also gives civilians having affairs with military personnel
an ability to blackmail those personnel.

But do those who have egged on these changes to the military accept this fact,
and are they willing to take responsibility for what they have created?

As a crucial and necessary step towards clarity on this issue,
I request that those Senators who have advocated for
opening the military to open homosexuals
and expanding the places where women can be deployed
be asked precisely
what is their position regarding sex between military personnel.
They should be asked to choose between several specific alternatives:

1. Sex between military personnel should be allowed
   as freely as it is between civilians.
2. Sex between military personnel should be strictly banned.
3. The current regulations forbidding adultery and fraternization
   should be maintained.
4. Or some other policy the senator may choose to enunciate.

My opinion:
Both the total ban and continuing current policies are in practice unenforceable.
There is plenty of evidence that people
will simply ignore and try to evade those bans.
On the other hand,
allowing sex between service members will really subvert the
"good order and discipline"
that the military needs in combat situations.





As to how the current (2013-14) senators are avoiding the problem,
consider their reaction to the court martial of BG Jeffrey Sinclair mentioned above.
Neither the prosecution nor the defense denies that a long-running sexual affair
between first Colonel, then Brigadier General Sinclair
and the unnamed first Lieutenant, then Captain accuser.
Yet the women in the Senate have only decried
the allegedly non-consensual aspects of it.
They have been totally mute on the relation itself.
Those Senate women need to be asked:

Are you only concerned about
non-consensual sex, sexual misconduct, and sexual abuse?
Do you tacitly accept sex in the military as long as it is consensual?
And if not,
do you really believe that regulations against it
can be effectively enforced?

I think it is a real shame, and in fact something far worse,
that the media is letting those women get away with
making the sexual misconduct the only issue,
while they ignore the problems consensual sex will cause.