On Matters of Math

It seems likely that DADT (Don't Ask, Don't Tell) will be repealed, if not now then in the near future. When that day comes, everyone will pat themselves on the back in an effort to acknowledge their incredible coolness. All will shout to the world that America is now officially cool and open and accepting and stuff. The world will then sing songs to America's greatness and ... no they won't, the world will still hate us but that's another post for another time. I think repealing DADT is a bad idea and let me explain why.

Math is a cruel bitch at the best of times and this is one of those times. One of the arguments used by the left for this repeal is the loss of skilled service members from the military because of their sexual orientation. Many numbers are batted about with a good center mass number somewhere in the 2000 range. I'm cool with that number, I think its probably too high but whatever, we'll use it. There you go, 2000 it will be. I am going to use the Army for our example here because the Army is what I know about, sorry jarheads, deck apes, and zoomies. There are 241 recruiting companies in the US Army Recruiting Command. They cover the entire nation to include Germany and American protectorates in the Pacific rim. Let us speculate a little. Lets say that each recruiting company looses 1 enlistment each month because of the repeal of DADT. One enlistment is not much is it? I see you grabbing your calculator, let me help, that is nearly 3000 lost enlistments each year. Oh my, that's 1000 more then our 2000 lost folks isn't it? This is just the Army. I assure you, people are already saying they plan on leaving the service and are definitely not recommending it to others. Some are talking out the side of their necks, but if even 10% are not, we have a problem. If math is your argument, you've lost, repeal will cost too damn much.

I don't give 2 bits about who you put your junk into after duty hours and in the privacy of your home. But I do care about the body I dedicated 22 years of my life to. People have no right to serve in the Armed Forces, none whatsoever. So what, you want to serve, goody for you, I want to be a porn star but we must all live with disappointment.