Buchanan on Adultery and the Military

Pat Buchanan’s Column Right on the Gen. Joseph Ralston affair takes an interesting spin (June 10). At first Buchanan seems to be saying that Ralston’s misbehavior isn’t as bad as Lt. Kelly Flinn’s because he kept it quiet. Then he proceeds to cast the entire debate in religious terms, thereby condemning Gen. Ralston for the “gravest act. For it shreds the most sensitive and solemn bonds of love and trust, and wounds, often to death, a tiny civilization; a family.” It is obvious that Buchanan lost sight of his argument in the heat of religious fervor.

His hypocrisy was evident in his claim of a religious war for the moral soul of America being waged by moral “traditionalists,” while blaming “modernists” for bringing the issue of sexual impropriety to public attention. He can’t have it both ways. He can’t claim the moral high ground on the basis of keeping impropriety a “private matter” as it was in the past and by blaming others for his moralistic stance.

ROBERT B. HARRIS

Lancaster

* Buchanan’s point on adultery appears to be: If it’s private and not homosexual, it’s OK.

ALLAN SANFORD

Palm Springs

* I am so thankful the U.S. military was not consumed in investigating the private morality of its members in the year of my birth when Dwight Eisenhower was named supreme commander of the Allied Forces. If so, I quite possibly might be writing this letter in German.

BETH PAULSON

South Pasadena

* I have a dream. In it, the only people commenting on Kelly Flinn, Gen. Stephen N. Xenakis or the Uniform Code of Military Justice have actually served in the military. First we had non-veterans like Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) claiming the military is “out of step” with current society. Then, on June 4 (Commentary), we had proud war protester Bill Press pontificating on “prudery,” comparing Flinn to a bus driver and calling U.S. generals “ayatollahs.”

Press goes on to claim that affairs with civilians should be excluded from censure under UCMJ. I guess the fact that Flinn’s latest paramour was married to an enlisted woman at Flinn’s base should be ignored.

Lott, Press and their ilk should shut up and mend their own houses. The military is a lot less broke than the political institutions they participate in.

WILLIAM BRADSHAW

San Diego

* They both committed adultery. She can’t be trusted to fly a bomber. He can be trusted to run the entire military. At last I have found the true definition of “military intelligence.”

BILL LYNCH

Northridge