Colossal Idiot Makes the Most Idiotic Argument He Can Think Of

(Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos is the one who looks like David Broder, not doing a Nazi salute, on your right.)

Did you know that United States Marines were mentally deficient big babies, unable to protect themselves or others in battle situations, due to their inability to concentrate? United States Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos wants you to know this, because he doesn't want any of his big babies to get hurt:

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/12/14/amos-dadt/

Speaking to reporters this afternoon, Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos — who has opposed repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell — suggested that if Congress lifts the ban against open service and allows gays to serve without hiding their sexual orientation, the Marines could be so distracted that they would die in the line of duty:

The chief of the US Marine Corps said Tuesday that ending a ban on openly gay troops in the military could jeopardize the lives of Marines in combat by undermining closely knit units.

General James Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps and an opponent of lifting the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” prohibition, cited a Pentagon study saying Marines fighting in Afghanistan were worried that permitting gays to serve openly could disrupt “unit cohesion.”

“When your life hangs on a line, on the intuitive behavior of the young man… who sits to your right and your left, you don’t want anything distracting you,” Amos told reporters at the Pentagon.

“I don’t want to lose any Marines to distraction. I don’t want to have any Marines that I’m visiting at Bethesda (hospital) with no legs,” he said.

He added that “mistakes and inattention or distractions cost Marines’ lives. That’s the currency of this fight.”

His comments were the toughest yet on the issue, after he testified at a congressional hearing that he opposed lifting the ban at a time of war.

Amos said Marines fighting in Afghanistan sent a “very strong message” in the Pentagon’s recent study, expressing opposition to the repealing the ban in an survey.

“I have to listen to that,” he said.

The Pentagon’s survey did reveal that Marines are most opposed to repealing the measure, but nowhere did it suggest that the distraction of gay servicemembers would have the effect of killing their straight counterparts. 

Goodness-- I wonder if this sort of argument could be used in any other ways?

Black Marines could be a distraction-- Check!

Catholic Marines could be a distraction-- Check!

Atheist Marines could be a distraction-- Check!

Jewish Marines could be a distraction-- Check!

Muslim Marines could be a distraction-- Double Check!

That's one amazingly useful argument, one used by governments and institutions and corporations and religions for all sorts of things, over all of human history, to prevent Justice. "It's not that we're against it, you understand, it's that we're afraid of the danger it poses to others."

So basically what Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos would like you to know is that the Marine Corps training is so useless and inept, and that Marines themselves are so useless and inept, that they would be institutional unable to make a procedural change and recognize the homosexuals already serving in their ranks, without taking major casualties.

Seems like we might have already known that.