The religious right is upset that apparently there might be growing pressure to open the military up to more recruits, women, gays, etc. Hey, with this administration in power, you can keep the military exclusively for the straight men for all I care. There's a draft coming, and nothing would make me happier than to let the children of the religious right lead the way into a series of needless and poorly-planned wars while my buddies and I sip cosmos at the beach.
...A retired U.S. Marine officer and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense says America's armed services are not like the civilian world, where everyone should be given an equal opportunity to participate. In fact, he contends, there are thousands of reasons why the military uses the phrase "selective service." As the U.S. armed forces continue to try to win the war against Islamofascism abroad, the Pentagon is continuing to deal with what some critics view as the liberal social engineering agenda in Washington, DC. But despite what many of the equality proponents protest, Colonel (Ret.) Ronald Ray points out that there is no inherent right to serve in the military, and many things can disqualify people from eligibility to serve. For example, he notes, "Today if you have three speeding tickets, they view that as an indication of your lack of subordination. They can keep you out of the Marine Corps. And obviously you don't have blind pilots, obviously you don't have disabilities -- flat feet, hernia." Although equal opportunity may work well in academia and in terms of civilian employment, the colonel asserts, "in the military, all service is selective service -- even the draft was called the 'Selective Service Act.' There is no right to serve your country in peacetime or in war time." The military has standards, Ray adds, and in a time of war, he feels they should go up rather than down.
