Wanted: Rehire gay Arabic linguists

By DOLPH HONICKER

By shooting from the lip, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staffs, put his foot squarely in his mouth before clumsily trying to extricate it.

The general said he erred and should not have voiced his personal view that homosexuality was immoral. Instead, he said he shold have stuck with the military’s policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

But the toothpaste was out of the tube, too late to cram back in.

It’s almost understandable. Among old-time warriors, personal views are deeply ingrained and sometimes slip out, which is one reason why the war in Iraq has faltered so miserably.

Another general began preaching the evangelical gospel before he was reined in.

What’s so wrong about the country’s top general raising the gay spectacle? For starters, consider this: Arabic linguists are sorely needed by an occupying force (us) in Iraq, yet 757 or 8 percent of gays discharged “held critical occupations,” meaning the kinds of jobs the Pentagon offers selective reenlistment bonuses. This included, says an ABC News report, 322 gays with “skills in an important language such as Arabic, Farsi or Korean.”

Among those given the boot were 55 fluent in Arabic.

In all, some 9,500 gays and lesbians have been discharged. That’s roughly a division of troops, almost half the “surge” that President George W. Bush is introducing into the maelstrom.

In February of this year, Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-NY) broached the idea to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to rehire the gay linguists and form them into a platoon.

Cathleen Glover might be among the first to re-up and join that platoon. She learned Arabic at the prestigious Army Language Institute (ALI) in Monterey, Calif. She graduated in 2002 when the Army was suffering from a critical shortage of linguists.

But two years later, after voluntarily signing a statement that she was a lesbian, Miss Glover, 26, was dismissed from the Army and wound up at an $11-an-hour job with a pool-maintenance company at the Sri Lankan ambassador’s residence.

Bleu Copas, who grew up in Johnson City, Tenn., listened to his daddy’s military stories. After 9/11, he was inspired to join the Army. He also was sent to ALI and soon began working in military intelligence.

He told ABC: “It is indisputable that the work that my specific job does is one of the most important in military. It is very difficult to keep tabs on all the different enemies.”

But someone -- he never learned who -- outed him, which led to his discharge.

Back to Gen. Pace, whose rows of ribbons prove that he has never shied from defending his country from foreign enemies, even ones that never posed a threat to us. It appears to be a bogyman of a domestic variety that shifts his eyes off the target.

For the record, my wife and I have been married for more than 50 years, have four adult kids who don’t smoke or do drugs, and six above average grandkids. We've had a number of homosexual and lesbian friends. I have worked with them on newspapers. Not once did they prove threatening.

So, Gen. Pace, get over your phobia. Give Congressman Ackerman his platoon.

Copyright 2007, Dolph Honicker