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Why The Generals Like ?Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell?

The top brass in the US Armed Forces are loyal keepers of the patriarchal flame. Military higher-ups came into adulthood, or, one might say, "manhood," when most gays were closeted. Psychological associations classified homosexuality as a disorder that derived from a parental combination of domineering mother/distant father. Boys who were interested in playing with dolls or in ballet and girls who behaved like "tomboys" were considered to have developmental problems that parents needed to nip in the bud.

Boot camp is the training period that is supposed to strip away the baggage from civilian lives that recruits bring with them into military service. Make "real" men of them. Accordingly, any sexist and homophobic attitudes are allowed to remain intact. Chants that accompany military exercises, for example, often re-enforce contempt for women in keeping with the patriarchal belief that women are inferior to men and should be subordinate to them.

For the old guard, not only in the military, but everywhere, gay attributes are seen to be similar to women's. The stereotype of the homosexual male is that he is a "sissy," a term derived from "sister," and that when push comes to shove, unlike "real men," he will not fight, but will "cut and run." Since presidents and generals alike fear the "cut and run" label, it is a major psychological barrier to withdrawing US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan - as it was during the Vietnam War.

Boot camp also emphasizes the importance of bonding within the basic combat group. Each member in the unit must be able to rely on every other member to have his back. For this reason, women are not slated for combat although in battle zones some have been ordered into patrol units even though they lack the training. "Don't ask, don't tell" is the only way to legally weed out the so-called "sissies."

Unlike Harry Truman who simply issued a presidential order to integrate the military services, both Clinton and Obama abandoned major campaign promises when faced with generals like Colin Powell who is dead set against gays being "out," that is, being accepted, in the military.

What the top brass ignore, or are unaware of, is that to growing numbers of young people homosexuality is no "big deal." They have grown up in a different atmosphere in which more and more gays and lesbians are "out," living together, getting married, and having families.

Many high schools now have peer groups that do educational work in support of Lesbians, Gays, Bi-sexual and Trangender people. Patriarchal forces in the larger society vigorously contest the work of these groups, claiming they are "brainwashing" teens and encouraging then to "adopt the homosexual lifestyle." The general population, though, is coming to understand that we humans do not choose whether we want to be heterosexual or homosexual.

Military commanders also support what amounts to a "don't tell" policy for women. Their tepid, do-nothing responses to allegations of rape by women service personnel has meant that only ten to twenty percent of sexual assaults are reported. Incredibly, women are rarely allowed to transfer out of their station and away from the accused while an investigation takes place.

Rape has long been a weapon of military conquest. Women and children the world over are seen as the property of men. A way to humiliate a vanquished foe is to rape "their" women. Some may recall that even the United Nations was forced to investigate accusations of rape against its troops that were sent to keep order in Congo and Haiti to.

Rape, of course, is not confined to the military. Unlike sporadic armed conflicts, the war against women goes on unabated across the globe. It is one of the forms of violence that is used to keep women under the collective male thumb whether or not an armed conflict is taking place in any given area.

Wholehearted acceptance of gays and women into the military would threaten the well-established patriarchal order. It is a system that has been successful for centuries in enabling those at the top to gain wealth and power.