Or should I say sexperts. They’re coming out to say banning intimate behaviour in the military is impossible. More than impossible. It’s against 100 Million Years (insert echo voice here) of human evolution!
You cannot fight it: You put adults together in any situation and you’re going to have sex and intimacy.”
Makes me wonder what I’m doing wrong, actually.
by 
Why … just this very eve I was together with a large number of adults in the local Mexican food restaurant. I am dismayed to report that there was absolutely NO ONE having any sex of any kind! What a bunch of evolutionarily backwards and unfortunate individuals we must have been indeed.
I just realized that if you substitute “youth” for “adults” in the above quotation, it summarizes Dalton’s new sex-ed curriculum. Maybe these sexperts were his consultants.
Ahem. As the wife of a sailor, I’d like to think that my husband isn’t getting intimate with ANYBODY, whether he goes into a war zone or is at anchor in Esquimalt Harbour! One of the many things that separates us from animals: self control. Sorry, but sex isn’t a “basic need”. Desire, perhaps, but not need.
Deborah: Perhaps you didn’t really read the words of the experts. It’s all over. 100 MILLION YEARS OF EVOLUTION!!! Don’t fight it.
Well in THAT case . . . I should probably let him know he can go ahead and have fun in Mexico next month, and I’ll put a box of laundry detergent in the window while he’s gone!
What is corrosive to the military ethos of his subordinates and peers is not the sex, but the deviation from the high standards of professional attributes expected and demanded in our military leaders. Things like duty, honour, loyalty and trust may not mean much to Sue McGarvie but are vitally important to maintain the discipline in a military organization, particularly in the extreme circumstances found in a war zone. You have to believe that your comrades in arms are working for something greater than their own selfish desires. If it really was love, BGen Menard could have controlled himself until after his tour was over and he had divorced his wife. He doesn’t get a free pass from me for his demonstrated moral weaknesses. LGen Lessard was entirely correct to relieve him of his command, once a commander breaks the bonds of trust, it is impossible to regain them. A similar issue he is no doubt experiencing with his wife, which makes the comments of Deborah relevant. The genesis of many of these regulations were a response to the integration of women into all military occupations in the 80’s, to partially alleviate the concerns of the wives that their spouses would be unfaithful on deployments.
Reid: Good comment.
I’ve been told it’s a bell that can’t be unrung, but I’m not a huge fan of women and men fighting together. For reasons other than infidelity, actually. Though that might play in.
Knowing that some of the best people he has worked with have been women, it doesn’t bother me too much (but I know my husband and he is a trustworthy person who does hold himself to very high standards). I agree with Reid, what is corrosive is the deviation from the high standards, this even applies to friendships and with whom they ought to be formed (and not formed). It’s all a matter of respect, for both yourself, your family, and the military as a whole. I think this can apply to anyone, really.