General Pace's Upbringing

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Pace, believes that homosexuality is immoral. He doesn't give a reason why; he just declares that he believes it so. As if calling it immoral proves it to be immoral!

That's not an argument, that's a prejudice. But he seems to think that it is an argument, because he backs it up by saying that he believes gayness to be immoral because that's the way he was brought up.

So the outline of his 'argument' runs thus:

Premise 1: I was brought up to think that homosexuality is immoral.
Premise 2 (implied): If I was brought up to believe something, than it must be true.
Conclusion: Homosexuality is immoral.

Bulletproof logic, no?

Since he's so concerned with immorality, I wonder if he considers it wrong to weaken our ability to fight terrorism by dismissing over 50 Arabic specialists from the military for being attracted to members of their own sex.

I'm sure that's a perfectly acceptable policy. Clearly, our capability to understand the enemies' language is secondary to keeping the military loyal to the standards of General Pace's personal upbringing.