Republicans show their gratitude to the dead British soldiers. Accordingly all they do is parade.

[TheBigotBasher]

According to Republicans at the Value Voters Conference, military forces which allow gay and lesbian soldiers to serve openly no longer participate in wars, only parades.

Of course, you would expect Republicans not to denigrate the United Kingdom, a Country that stood by the US for two wars of questionable legality. One of them caused because a Republican President, that the likes of the Value Voters Conference continually applauded, failed in his duty to keep his own Country safe in September 2001.

Of course not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNPIr0xEh_0

Maginnis: That's why countries like the ten largest militaries in the world, that have the ten largest militaries in the world say 'no, this isn't the thing to do.' They spin this as if Great Britain and we ought to copy them and the Dutch. Well the fact is that 80 percent of the militaries in the world don't embrace this particular view.

Perkins: Well, those that do, they're the ones that participate in parades, they don't fight wars to keep the nation and the world free. So there's a big difference.</blockquote>
There are few words for this. What a way to thank these men.

This is a link to a list of British casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan that Republicans dismissed as people who were just parading.


http://thebigotbasher.com/2010/09/21/all-british-soldiers-do-is-run-round-in-gay-parades-looking-fabulous/

[Kdillard]

1. Disgusting and shameful.

[sarge43]

2. Just when you think they can't be any more vile

They never disappoint.

[14thColony]

3. WTF?!!! Ok, how about some verifiable facts then...

Such as the list of countries that both allow openly-gay service members AND have or have had troops in Afghanistan*:

Albania, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The United Kingdom

Special mentions: Denmark has the largest number of casualties as a percentage of population AND as a percentage of troops deployed. The United Kingdom has the second largest number of troops in combat as well as overall casualties, and their troops are in some of the most hellish parts of Afghanistan.

In fact, of the very short list of "no gays allowed in the military" type countries out there, only four (Turkey, Greece, Republic of Korea, Singapore) have or have EVER had troops in Afghanistan, so I could easily make the case that it's exactly the OPPOSITE of how they portray it -- the "no gays allowed" countries are more likely to stay away from combat! Not that one is even remotely related to the other, but at least there'd be actual facts to back this position up!

We have clearly entered the realm of "the facts are what I want them to be" in our modern political discourse.


*Note: there are several other countries with troops in Afghanistan whose policies I am simply not sure of, so this list might in reality be longer.

Sources:
http://www.isaf.nato.int/troop-numbers-and-contributions/index.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_casualties_in_Afghanistan
http://www.palmcenter.org/research/nations%20allowing%20service%20by%20openly%20gay%20people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_orientation_and_military_service

Edit: Oh yeah, and "80 percent of the militaries in the world don't embrace this particular view"? Shockingly their math is correct, (193 sovereign states, of which 18 have no militaries, so the 35 countries KNOWN to allow openly gay citizens to serve is in fact only 20 percent of 175, so full marks for their math skills or their blind luck, whichever). But what they ignore is the 35 states that do not ban people based on sexual orientation represent a considerable chunk of the world's actual combat power, to include three of the five legal nuclear powers -- hell most of NATO plus RUSSIA is on that list, and China is the only significant military on the "no way no how" list (the US is considered to be in a grey area between "no way" and "no problem."