Some perspective please

Instapundit references an article by Deroy Murdock.

Name the greater risk to national security: patriotic military translators who happen to be homosexual or anti-American Islamofascist terrorists who happen to be homicidal. If you picked the latter, thanks for putting U.S. safety first. Alas, the Pentagon disagrees.

According to new Defense Department data, between fiscal years 1998 and 2003, 20 Arabic- and six Farsi-language experts were booted from the military under President Bill Clinton's 1993 "don't ask/don't tell" policy. These GIs trained at the elite Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif. Had they graduated _ assuming 40-hour workweeks and two-week vacations _ they could have dedicated 52,000 man-hours annually to interrogate Arab-speaking bomb builders, interpret intercepted enemy communications or transmit reassuring words to bewildered Baghdad residents.

The pundit's reaction?

Read the whole thing. As with Lincoln, I just don't care where they put their wing-wangs. I wish the Army didn't, either. (Via Evan Coyne Maloney).

Well, OK, I'm happy you have magnanimity, but let's get a couple of things straight.

1) They knew the rules going in and violated them anyway. If they were anything other than homosexuals everyone would nod in agreement about their punishment. So why are homosexuals exempt from opprobrium for rules violations?

2) It's not as if they were completely irreplaceable. Does Murdock really want us to think that these 26 people were the only 26 in the entire US that could do this job? Spare me.

Like the good professor, I could care less what you do in your private life. I also don't want to hear the details, OK? But when you break the rules, there should be and are consequences, and nobody (not even the Instapundit) is irreplaceable — nobody.

So spare me the whining, OK? You screwed up. Now move on with your life. And if you want to protest the Army's policy, do it in the right way — call your Congressperson.

UPDATE: Donald Sensing points out that the Army is simply following the law — a law which Congress passed and fully expects the military to comply with.

So, law professor Glenn, the ball is in your court.