In response to "Don’t judge gays in the military" (letter, Feb. 22), everything in the letter was exactly what she asked the writer of "Another perspective on gays" (letter, Feb. 19) not do to do.

She complained about his quoting from the Bible, and then provided a quote from the Bible. She had an issue with his using this forum to preach, yet gave us a sermon of her own.

I can make an emotional and moral commitment to someone without being married to them, and do so with every servicemember I have the honor of working with, regardless of what I think their orientation is.

Nobody is judging gays in the military and, to be honest, I do not think soldiers care, but this is what will happen if the policy is repealed: Many soldiers who come out and state they are gay will use this as a reason to file a complaint every time they get passed up for promotion or do not receive a waiver; leaders will be afraid to impose the Uniform Code of Military Justice on gay soldiers for fear the soldiers will contact the inspector general and state they are being punished because they are gay.

I have yet to understand why great organizations like our military feel the need to categorize everyone by orientation, color, sex, ethnicity and religion. The system we have works, and it is only for political reasons that there is a desire to change it.

Homosexual soldiers are in the service, are not being mistreated, are serving honorably, and enjoy the same rights and benefits of every other servicemember, except that the Army does not recognize a spouse being the same gender of the servicemember.

Repealing the policy will create more problems than the one that it will solve.

First Lt. John BrostAl Asad Air Base, Iraq

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