Quote Originally Posted by JMA View Post
Nice spin there Rex. I guess you will find some people who would buy that.

Sadly it is evident that the Canadian military has been turned into a social experiment by liberal politicians. Given the wonderful military history of Canadian forces in the past the situation today is very sad.

...and oh yes, peacetime discipline sets the standard for wartime. As does training... ever heard the expression train hard... fight easy ?
I suppose I would be one of those who 'buy that'. I must respectfully disagree with how you characterize our inclusion of homosexuals in the Forces as a 'social experiment', as well as your similar objections earlier in this thread to the similar inclusion of women, particularly in combat trades.

It's not 'an experiment'. We're not trying something out to see how it goes. Rather, our (Canadian) society has grown to be simply quite accepting of homosexuals, and they have gained nearly full legal equality with others. In short, social views have informed both our constitutional system of rights and the judicial interpretation thereof, and consequently there's no longer any generalized official acceptance that simply being gay is a quality that conveys any legitimate grounds to exclude a person from serving in the military.

As a junior leader in the infantry, my primary concern (after the primacy of the mission) is that my soldiers are possessed with the ability to soldier, and that they put a full effort into doing so and into improving themselves professionally. If a soldier can soldier, I don't care much about who or what he or she does when they go home at night, so long as they comport themselves professionally and do the job. I see no percentage in excluding part of the potential pool of recruits- particularly as the labour market makes finding good people more and more time consuming and expensive. Speaking form a limited amount of experience, I've served with homosexuals both at home and overseas, and never found their sexuality to be a detriment to their ability to do the job. Likewise the women I've served with or led. Fewer women succeed in the combat trades than men, but those who can do the job have a place in my rifle section as long as they contribute to my ability to accomplish the mission.

I'm curious as to your comment about the 'wonderful military history of Canadians in the past' versus 'the situation today'. I would say that the situation facing the Canadian military today is better than it has been in decades- we have a better equipped, better trained, more modernized and more combat experienced force than we've had in a long time. What is it about 'the current situation' that causes you to lament the state of our military- and what's it got to do with gays or women serving in uniform?