Marine Corps Times:

The U.S. military’s top officer came just short of issuing an apology Tuesday for calling homosexuality “immoral,” saying he regretted offering his own moral views during a news interview and should have limited his remarks to the military’s current “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

“In expressing my support for the current policy, I also offered some personal opinions about moral conduct,” said Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a statement posted in mid-afternoon on the Defense Department’s Web site.

“I should have focused more on my support of the policy and less on my personal moral views.”

The Clinton-era “don’t ask don’t tell” policy, often erroneously referred to as “the Pentagon’s”, is actually congressionally mandated and can only be changed by some future act of congress.

But not everyone knows that:

I think the military should carefully consider changing the policy. We need the most talented people, we need the language skills, we need patriotic Americans who exist across the board in our population. We don’t need moral judgment from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

— Nancy Pelosi

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