Military World Winks At The U.S.

The armed forces of other nations are watching in disbelief as the vaunted U.S. military machine turns itself inside out over sex, gender and adultery.

“Most militaries in the world don’t worry about this stuff,” said Lawrence Korb, a former Navy flier and assistant defense secretary for personnel.

“We’ve gotten ourselves into a really bizarre situation” in the prolonged battles over gays in the military, women in combat roles, fraternization, consensual sex and adultery, Korb said.

While the Americans throw fits over the sex lives of servicemen and women, officials of the British, French, Israeli, Irish and Polish governments said they could not recall a single court-martial case involving adultery in their armed forces.

But American military tradition is that an individual who would cheat on a spouse is untrustworthy and lacks the character or judgment to make life and death decisions.

“Adultery? In the French military? No, we don’t mind about that,” said French Embassy spokesman Bernard Valero.

He said civil courts deal with adultery in France - on the rare occasions when it is dealt with at all.

Last week, Secretary of Defense William Cohen wondered where to “draw the line” on sex and discipline in the uproar over his decision to ignore the admitted adultery of Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston 14 years ago.

Cohen said Ralston was still in the running for promotion to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, thoroughly angering women’s groups who contrasted his treatment with that of Air Force Lt. Kelly Flinn.

Flinn, 26 and single, took a general discharge last month rather than face a court-martial for disobedience, lying under oath and adultery.

Karen Johnson, an official of the National Organization for Women and a former Air Force lieutenant colonel, said Flinn was a victim of “a double standard in the military for what women and men are able to do and get away with.”

She said, “In the military, the attitude always was that boys will be boys, and they’re going to be sexually promiscuous” in a warrior culture equating lust with an ability to fight.

Retired Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan didn’t dispute that commanders often wink at the indiscretions of their randy soldiers and sailors in the past, but said: “You don’t have to go brawling through the brothels to be a good warrior.”

Shanahan, head of the Center for Defense Information, said the services are correct in cracking down on sexual misconduct and seeking to define new rules for equal treatment of the sexes but had “gone crazy” on adultery.

U.S. allies also are scratching their heads. “We do not deal whatsoever with adultery” in the Israeli Defense Forces, an Israeli official said.

In the U.S. Air Force alone last year, formal charges of adultery were filed in 67 cases - 60 of them against men.

“In the case of Lt. Flinn, I don’t think that would be a problem here,” Irish Commandant Declan Carberry said from Dublin.

Carberry said adultery could become an issue in the 12,000-member Irish defense forces “if it came into conflict with your duties within the defense forces,” but he could not recall a case being prosecuted.

He said an Irish soldier was forced to retire three years ago when his homosexual relationship was deemed to be interfering with his duties, but sexual orientation is normally not a concern. “It’s a private matter. We don’t ask,” Carberry said.

In the United Kingdom’s 200,000-member military force, “there are rules against fraternization” of superiors with subordinates, but “I’ve certainly never heard of adultery” being prosecuted, said British Embassy spokesman Robert Chatterton Dickson.

Polish Embassy spokesman Jaroslaw Kurek said he could not state for certain whether adultery was an offense in the Polish military. “I’ve never heard of this being an issue,” he said.

High-ranking U.S. officials also seemed confused last week on when adultery is - and isn’t - an offense in the military.

Although Pentagon spokesmen stated that adultery was punishable only when “good order and discipline” were involved, Air Force Gen. Lloyd Newton told the Senate that “adultery is a crime in the military. When folks commit offenses such as adultery, appropriate action will be taken.”

“When you sign on the dotted line, you must expect to be held to a higher standard,” Newton said.