Pace's new career

General Peter Pace, the retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, went before the Senate yesterday to clarify his statements about immorality and gays in the military.

Pace, who retires next week, said he was seeking to clarify similar remarks he made in spring, which he said were misreported.

"Are there wonderful Americans who happen to be homosexual serving in the military? Yes," he told the Senate Appropriations Committee during a hearing focused on the Pentagon's 2008 war spending request.

"We need to be very precise then, about what I said wearing my stars and being very conscious of it," he added. "And that was very simply that we should respect those who want to serve the nation, but not through the law of the land condone activity in my upbringing is counter to God's law."

Before going any further, everyone should notice the very distubing implication of his last stement. Pace is firmly endorsing the Religious Right position that American law should not be allowed to run counter to their sect's interpretation of Biblical law. This position is firmly embedded in their revisionist "Christian Nation" theory of American history. That Pace would use his position and an official forum to endorse this idea is both disturbing and dangerous. I suppose, since he is retiring, he was advertising his availability for a new career on the lucrative far right speakers' circuit.