Farther wrote:
Not really, but then nobody really knows what's going to happen.
Actually, quite a large number of people know some of the things that are going to happen. You should probably not try and reduce the situation so blindly. Some servicemen and women will leave the U.S. Military at the earliest possible time. The U.S. Military will gain new servicemen and women from multiple demographics as a result of the legislation. The net change, if any, in active duty personal as a result of this change cannot, however, be directly monitored without compromising all sorts of security and privacy issues for both the U.S. Military and individual service people. So, it is quite dishonest to say no one knows "what" will happen, because a great number of those "whats" are already a given.
Farther wrote:
Let me try, one last time, to make my point for you. How many heterosexual men do you find, normally, in a gay bar? Not many.
This, like the bulk of your statements in this thread, is a hasty generalization. Any number of "gay bars", even here in the South, have relatively large heterosexual male and female client bases, as they generally cater to a different type of music and dance preference than your typical "straight" bar. Of course, you'll have to be more specific when you say "gay bar", so that I might understand which particular fetish and variant of male homosexuality you're attempting to use as a stereotype. If I had to guess, I'd say it was a Leather Bar, but they tend to a attract a wide variety of heterosexuals themselves. Bars and People don't like to fit into the neat little categories you need for this argument to work logically.
Farther wrote:
Heterosexual men vote with their feet. They may not mind that there is a gay bar in the neighborhood, but they're normally not going to be a patron of one.
Actually, since Heterosexual Men isn't a useful classification when it comes to economic behavior, it's a terrible predictor when it comes to employment behavior as well. The socioeconomic implications of your argument fall apart when you consider exactly how different the various peoples in the United States happen to be.
Farther wrote:
My thinking is that the same sort of mentality is going to effect recruitment and retention. I think heterosexual men will consider that as a factor, and some will opt to not join up. Others who are there now will opt to leave rather than remain. They will vote with their feet.
Some people will vote with their feet, but they're the same people who tended to vote with their feet when they knew a squadmate liked the sausage and they couldn't out them in the first place. As for the rest of the people in the military, it's not so easy to homogenize or reduce that group into some sort of gender-typed construct based on sexual orientation. It simply doesn't work: the entity itself is too complex.
Farther wrote:
Quote:
What happens if both increase in during whatever arbitrary timeframe you want to choose post-enactment of the DADT repeal?
Then I will admit I was wrong and breath a sigh of relief. I don't care, other than I still want our military to be able to kill people and destroy property when the country needs them to.
Even if retention and recruitment increase, you may not be wrong, anymore than you would be right, about the impact of repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell on our military. To use my favorite tautology:
Complex systems are complex. Contrary outcomes can result from a wide variety of issues and circumstances. That said, you'll see retention and recruitment continue to increase over the next decade.
_________________
Corolinth wrote:
Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.