US Soldiers - Gayer Now or during the Clinton Administration?

Not that there's anything WRONG with that...

But I couldn't help wondering about the Pentagon's stance on gays in the military after reading the Fudge Report today...

"Pentagon possesses three disks of photos, one of which includes a photo of soldiers sodomizing prisoners with glow sticks... Many of the photos are redundant, and some have little to do with Iraqi detainees but show sex between U.S. soldiers... Pentagon officials prevailed at least temporarily in their insistence that the administration not immediately release the images, which include the forced masturbation of a detainee...

PHOTOS SHOW AMERICAN SOLDIERS HAVING SEX WITH ONE ANOTHER"

Does this mean all U.S. Troops engaged in this behavior will be decommissioned and dishonorably discharged?

Something tells me that will be a lot of our military force in Iraq if the Pentagon is sitting on so many pictures.



And I also can't help but wonder how George feels about so many of his fighting men fighting his holy Christian war are gay?

RAW

but if they manage to make that connection, there will be persecution of gays in this country, make no mistake about it

the torture didn't bother the Right, i mean they encouraged that. But our soldiers GAY? Now that's going to be a big problem to them.

I can hear the Clenis arguments already.

Since I refuse to give Drudge any more traffic than he already gets...

Is there a reason to believe that the soldiers in question are all men? Or is it an assumption on your part?

From everything I've read thus far, the (consensual) sex between soldiers in question was heterosexual. Certainly, I could be wrong, but that's why I'm asking.

This, obviously, is a separate issue from that of male (or female) U.S. soldiers sexually assaulting Iraqis -- and let's keep that distinction clear. No doubt, as the details of male-on-male rape emerges in the context of Iraqi POW torture, there will be plenty of time for heated debates about whether rape equals sex or violence.

And plenty of time for gay people to take another hit to the gut for something that has nothing whatsoever to do with being gay.

I can see that argument coming down the pike, fast -- and it's not going to be pretty.

Maybe it's a wrong assumption, and I usually liken most of Drudge's headlines to someone screaming "FIRE" in a crowded theater for attention. I guess it was inferred from his headline, that since the majority of enlisted soldiers are male, that the sex being reported is homosexual, especially with the extra allegations that prisoners were being sodomized with glow sticks. I don't know if that's homosexual behavior or heterosexual behavior, in either case it's still dehumanizing to prisoners regardless of the torturer's sexual preferences.

RAW

That this very assumption is all too easy to make -- and that the American masses will naturally associate both consensual soldier-to-soldier sex and prisoner-torture with normal, healthy homosexuality in general.

I hope I'm just being an alarmist, but my gut tells me that this is where the already-inflamed anti-gay climate in the U.S. is headed. I'm not jumping on you, RAW -- it's just that your post set off a very loud alarm. Of course I'm going to be much more sensitive to this sort of thing -- and I see a backlash coming, the likes of which make the recent backlash against same-sex marriage pale by comparison.

Again, I hope I'm wrong. (You have no idea just how much I hope I'm wrong!) But when the RW finds a way to distort Torturegate into an indictment of gay and lesbian Americans... well, just remember you read it here first.

I don't know if that's homosexual behavior or heterosexual behavior, in either case it's still dehumanizing to prisoners regardless of the torturer's sexual preferences.

It's neither, any more than forcible heterosexual rape has anything to do with normal heterosexual behavior. It's just violence.

They are getting off on the humiliation and pain they are causing the men they are raping, which is more akin to extreme sadism than anything else. I don't know if they are necessarily sexually attracted to the men they are doing this to or the sense of power they get from doing this.

It has nothing to do with attraction; it's all about power -- and revenge.

...can equate to the LGBT community? I know realistically it would mean to be more merry/happy, but equating that word with gay people? You are either gay or you aren't.

And just because some of the torture acts happening involve sticking things up peoples you know whats doesn't mean the people doing this are gay.

I really find this thread disturbing, but after not having a really good sleep, I am too tired to get into a proper discussion about it.

On edit: typo