Don't disagree, if the US people want gays in the military then let gays join the military. I do not think this it is social engineering if the people want it. I just don't think gays have some sort of 'right' to join the military, nobody does, it's not about rights since it's not part of the political sphere (at least not in the Anglo-sphere tradition).

My point was just that should there be controversy surrounding the issue, the army should not be forced to allow gay people to sign up. I'm getting kind of abstract but it just brought to mind how in France they tried to use conscription to help integrate different segments of society by instilling them with civic-republican values.

That makes me uneasy since I guess in Anglosaxonland we have a different tradition of political-military relations.

Heck, if people decided they didn't want gingers in the army, I wouldn't complain. I might think they're idiots but I'm not going to want to disrupt our effectiveness as a military unit and get people killed.