One of the things you learn in the military is the importance of
moral authority. Moral authority matters because it helps to check
the abuse of power by those with legal or statutory authority.
This is especially important in hierarchical and
bureaucratic organization such as the U.S. military. While serving
in Iraq, for instance, I saw Marine Corps captains and majors defer
to more junior corporals and sergeants.
The captains and majors, obviously, had controlling legal
authority; and no one, least of all the Marine corporals and
sergeants, ever doubted or questioned this. But everyone recognized
that, because of their combat experience and savvy, the corporals
and sergeants had a certain moral authority which had to be
acknowledged and respected.
I was reminded of this point yesterday while watching
Army
Staff Sergeant Salvatore Augustine Giunta
receive the Congressional Medal of Honor: Because although
policymakers certainly have the legal authority to repeal “Don’t
Ask, Don’t Tell,” I’m not sure that they have the moral authority
to do so.
And that is why, I think, Senator McCain has wisely
decided to oppose (at least for now) any attempt to summarily force
the military — and especially the combat arms — to accommodate
open homosexuality within the ranks.
“I agree,” McCain said Sunday on
Meet the Press. “The
President and the Secretary of Defense have all come out for
repeal. But I really would —
I was in an outpost near Kandahar. Army Master Sergeant,
19 years in, fifth deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan, says to me:
“Senator McCain, we live, eat, sleep and fight together at close
proximity. I’m concerned about the repeal. I’d like to know more
about it.” That’s the view that I got from chief petty officers and
sergeants all over Afghanistan.
My own military experience is quite modest and certainly
in no way comparable or analogous to that of Sen. McCain’s and
Staff Sergeant Giunta’s.
I did, however, serve in Iraq (as a Marine) with the First
Battalion, Fourth Marine Infantry Regiment. And I can tell you that
the non-commissioned officer corps — the same chief petty officers
and sergeants whom Sen. McCain alludes to — are almost all
completely against open homosexuality within the ranks.
They oppose openly gay service because they recognize that
the introduction of an overt sexual dynamic into small-scale
military units is inherently disruptive and problematic. They also
recognize that morale and esprit de corps are dependent upon a
shared sense of manhood that simply does not allow for same-sex
attraction and allure.
Yet all too often their voices — the voices of our NCO
corps, the voices of the men (and yes, they’re men, not women)
doing the fighting and dying on our behalf — are disregarded
altogether in the debate over “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” These men
are treated as mindless sheep who can and should be herded into
submission by the officer corps.
I’m sorry, but that’s not right; it’s wrong. What makes
our military singularly unique, after all, is its non-commissioned
officers. These are highly trained warriors who command great
responsibility (and respect), exhibit great leadership, and
demonstrate great initiative. And without them, we would fail
militarily.
So it behooves us to listen to them and to heed their
concerns. The NCOs may not have legal authority to enforce their
will over a more politically correct officer corps and the Pentagon
desk jockeys. They do, however, possess tremendous moral authority
by virtue of having seen combat for most of the past
decade.
I really don’t know whether Staff Sergeant Giunta favors
openly gay service. Certainly, he is under no obligation to enter
this debate. He owes us absolutely nothing. We are forever in his
debt for his awe-inspiring courage and
gallantry under fire.
But I do know that many warriors like Giunta absolutely
are opposed to sexualizing and feminizing the combat
arms.
I also know that our ruling class elites and the popular
culture have done their best to
bully and intimidate our warriors
into silent submission and acquiescence. This, as I say, is wrong
and unconscionable.
Like all of us, Sen. McCain surely has made many mistakes
in his life. But one mistake that he has never made, even in his
darkest and most nightmarish days at the Hanoi Hilton, is to
abandon his brothers-in-arms.
That is why he has willingly suffered the slings and
arrows of
Hollywood and our ruling class elites
to protect the cultural viability and integrity of the American
armed forces.
I don’t know whether and for how long Sen. McCain will be
able to withstand the tremendous pressure he is under to submit to
the far Left. But I do know that, once again, he has shown great
courage and resolve. And he has given America’s warriors reason to
hope that, on another distant battlefield in Washington, D.C., they
might yet prevail once again, thanks to their moral authority and
moral courage.
