Normally, I give all Marines a great deal of respect and deference. I love those Marines I know well: that group includes my husband, my father-in-law, my brother-in-law, and many friends. So I get especially irked when I come across an op-ed by a Marine who has managed to put his foot, his leg, and that part of his behind in which his head is not firmly inserted in his mouth. That Marine is Mackubin Thomas Owens, and his op-ed this morning in the Wall Street Journal (here) just made my blood boil. The thesis of this ridiculous essay is that we can't have gays serve in the military because "[t]he presence of open homosexuals in the close confines of ships or military units opens the possibility that eros—which unlike philia is sexual, and therefore individual and exclusive—will be unleashed into the environment."
Right. No eros is in the military now with opposite-sex couples. That would never occur. [If I liked the "sarc mark," I'd insert it here.]
Owens ties together his hogwash with fancy-sounding words, but it's still hogwash. Just insert "women" everywhere he discusses "gays," and you get a sense of what he's really saying.
I know many Marines (and many conservatives) who would gladly disassociate themselves from Owens's remarks in this op-ed. So, when you read his hogwash, just know this: Owens stands apart. "Stupid" is not a hallmark of Marines or conservatives. He's giving both a bad name.
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