http://samjmiller.com/2010/11/08/fighting-for-the-repeal-of-don%e2%80%99t-ask-don%e2%80%99t-tell-only-makes-progressive-movements-in-this-country-complicit-with-the-wars-in-iraq-and-afghanistan-and-pakistan/ Stories, articles, pictures, and obsessions: including, but not limited to, science fiction, fantasy, horror, video games, queerness, robots, genocide, YA lit, foolishness, photography, radical resistance, books, punk rock. Cooking. Television. Cartoons. Thu, 23 May 2013 18:23:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 http://samjmiller.com/2010/11/08/fighting-for-the-repeal-of-don%e2%80%99t-ask-don%e2%80%99t-tell-only-makes-progressive-movements-in-this-country-complicit-with-the-wars-in-iraq-and-afghanistan-and-pakistan/#comment-1185 Chris Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:26:39 +0000 http://samjmiller.com/?p=1321#comment-1185 I saw the Democracy Now! episode with Matilda Bernstein Sycamore and Dan Choi, and it was kind of a slap upside the head for me- as a gay liberal hopeful cynical pacifist, do I really just stand in a wishy-washy ground of condemning the idea of war but supporting the liberal cause of letting soldiers serve openly if they want to serve? I saw Choi speak in DC, and he's an eloquent speaker, but everything Matilda said was absolutely dead on-sadly though I think what it would take to achieve that awesome goal of concentrating more on life instead of battles is a world wide dismantling of every military budget, and the cynical thread in me thinks that's never going to happen. WWI was the slaughter to end all wars, the atrocities of the Holocaust, and here the wars still are going on. It comes down to personal experience though- this weekend my family and I met with a friend of my brother from college; he's in the military and due to ship out to Afghanistan in December. He has a family. I hope beyond hope that he returns fine. Call it duty, honor, put it in whatever lofty terms you want, but I'm still shaken and upset by the fact that war is separating him from his family. That is wrong. I saw the Democracy Now! episode with Matilda Bernstein Sycamore and Dan Choi, and it was kind of a slap upside the head for me- as a gay liberal hopeful cynical pacifist, do I really just stand in a wishy-washy ground of condemning the idea of war but supporting the liberal cause of letting soldiers serve openly if they want to serve? I saw Choi speak in DC, and he’s an eloquent speaker, but everything Matilda said was absolutely dead on-sadly though I think what it would take to achieve that awesome goal of concentrating more on life instead of battles is a world wide dismantling of every military budget, and the cynical thread in me thinks that’s never going to happen. WWI was the slaughter to end all wars, the atrocities of the Holocaust, and here the wars still are going on. It comes down to personal experience though- this weekend my family and I met with a friend of my brother from college; he’s in the military and due to ship out to Afghanistan in December. He has a family. I hope beyond hope that he returns fine. Call it duty, honor, put it in whatever lofty terms you want, but I’m still shaken and upset by the fact that war is separating him from his family. That is wrong.

]]> http://samjmiller.com/2010/11/08/fighting-for-the-repeal-of-don%e2%80%99t-ask-don%e2%80%99t-tell-only-makes-progressive-movements-in-this-country-complicit-with-the-wars-in-iraq-and-afghanistan-and-pakistan/#comment-1184 Swale Tue, 09 Nov 2010 14:32:00 +0000 http://samjmiller.com/?p=1321#comment-1184 There are two different issues and they should not be linked or conflated. With respect to DADT, it's a matter of equality and fairness of an American governmental institution. That's it. As to how American military power should be used -- and, indeed, how much is really needed, that's a different basket of issues. There are two different issues and they should not be linked or conflated. With respect to DADT, it’s a matter of equality and fairness of an American governmental institution. That’s it. As to how American military power should be used — and, indeed, how much is really needed, that’s a different basket of issues.

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