Gays
in the military: Could they in fact improve unit cohesion?
Causeur, France
Gays in the Military? … The Greeks Had it Right
"The
Sacred Battalion, Plutarch and Polybius tell us, was considered one of the best
operational units of antiquity. And like the French infantry, it was composed
of pairs, but pairs in which each was the lover of the other, which gave them
additional motivation in battle."
Gay American soldiers can
finally come out of the closet. Indeed, it is little known, but there are times
homosexuals seek professional fulfillment outside of the hair salon, the Culture
Ministry, books published by Editions P.O.L.,
techno-parades and bars in Le
Marais.
THE LYAUTEY PRECEDENT
Some
of them like, for example, the arms trade. And they succeed at it brilliantly.
One will fondly recall Hubert
Lyautey, who conquered Morocco by plunging into the backcountry
and whose taste for second lieutenants was a mystery to no one. The leading historian
on Lyautey, Douglas Porch,
in his The Conquest of Morocco, says that whatever his predilections, he
was never, for all that, an advocate of tent sofa promotions, and held to a
very strict professional code of ethics when it came to granting them. All of which
goes to show that even a homosexual can handle things sensibly.
The homophobic French, for
example [rap group] Sexion
d'Assaut, can rest easy. Today at least, this isn't our concern. It's the
concern of the United States Army. So we can take a deep breath and listen. A federal
judge in Los Angeles recently invalidated a law that forced gays into hiding. The
law, steeped in Protestant hypocrisy, is called Don't Ask, Don't
Tell, or DADT. Judge Virginia Philips has ruled that the law contradicted
the First and Fifth
Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantee, among other things, freedom
of expression. The first response to this calling DADT into question came from
Lady Gaga, who applauded with her well-manicured hands [video below]. It's uncertain
whether this was the best form of publicity that Gay GIs may have dreamed of and who,
from now on, will no longer have to hide from GI Joe ... or perhaps they still
might.
More than likely, there will be
expressions of extreme reservation, like those of former Republican presidential
candidate John McCain. A Vietnam war hero, McCain has fought hard on the
subject, engaging in a gallant last Congressional battle without preventing the
reinstatement of a lesbian nurse. I know when "lesbian nurse" is said
this way, it sounds a little like the title of 1970s porn film ...
For the rest, we'll likely
move quickly to the reactions of a few decorated brutes who'll grieve at the
idea of fielding units of faggots confronting the Taliban today and the Syrians
or Iranians tomorrow. A homo in the military, that's alright, but when there
are lots of them, this, it must be said, poses a problem.
THE THEBAN PRECEDENT
They are wrong. The end of Don't
Ask Don't Tell is a stroke of good fortune, as will be seen if one looks at
things more pragmatically and strips oneself of prejudice. First things first:
the American army, officially heterosexual, has taken blow after blow over
recent years. The second Gulf War cost it thousands of lives and America is preparing
to depart with its tail between its legs from the sectors of the country it still
rather badly controls. Places like Baghdad's Green Zone and a few ultra-fortified
and secured points, where people live self-sufficiently as reporter Adrien Jaulmes has so
well described in Amerak.
How to avoid such disappointments? By remembering that one fights best for what
one loves. Being commanded by a small Latino sergeant with garlic breath when
you're turned on by big blonds with Swedish names from Minnesota would rather
tend to depress you when surrounded by overexcited Sunnis in the area of
Fallujah. Or having a White virgin from the Bible Belt steeped in religion as a
roommate while you adore big Black men from South Central would tend to make
the nights in Kabul even chillier.
The Greeks and the city of
Thebes understood this perfectly. In battle, not only is homosexuality not a
drawback - it's an advantage. The
Sacred Battalion, Plutarch and Polybius tell us, was considered one of the
best operational units of antiquity. And like the French infantry, it was composed
of pairs, but pairs in which each was the lover of the other, which gave them
additional motivation in battle. It was Flaubert, who shows in his book Salammbô,
during the rout of the besieged and starving Carthaginian mercenaries in
the defile of the axe - at which point the Thebans were unmistakable
among the thousands: "They slept, side by side, under the same mantle,
under the starlight … They had formed strange loves, obscene unions that were
handled like serious marriages, where the strongest defended the youngest in
the midst of battle … and the other repaid this devotion with a thousand
delicate cares and spousal kindnesses."
All that remains now is for
the United States Army to grant equal rights to its heterosexual personnel.
It's true, isn't it? I don't see why one should be thrown in the cooler simply
because one wanted to offer a beer, and maybe more, to his sexy captain, who happens to be
a real dead ringer for Sarah Palin.
