Approved portions of the 2012 Republican National Platform dealing with defense would support conscience rights of military chaplains, censure “social experimentation” in the ranks, and maintain opposition to women serving in infantry units.
According to Center for Military Readiness president Elaine Donnelly, who participated in the platform-drafting process, this year’s Republican message for national security revolved around the mantra of “peace through strength.”
“It???s a paradigm, it???s a meme if you will,” Donnelly told Human Events Tuesday afternoon. The socially conservative planks built into the platform, she said, serve to insulate American forces from distractions and political manipulation and allow them to focus on readiness and the mission.
“Whatever the issue is, if a decision is made with national security first, everything is going to work itself out,” she said.
The decision to continue to support a women’s exemption from ground combat was not a revolutionary step, Donnelly said.
“What is controversial is what Obama???s trying to do. The direct ground combat battalions, to gender-integrate them makes no sense,” she said. “The Obama administration is really pressing hard on the Marines and the Army … The Marines the Army, they???re looking for assurance that this too shall pass.”
With the end of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” prohibition on gay troops serving openly, the Republican platform includes planks supporting the enforcement of the federal Defense of Marriage Act in the military — a move to curtail the performance of same-sex marriage ceremonies in base chapels — and opposing the wearing of military uniforms at gay pride parades, a practice that was sanctioned by the Pentagon for a San Diego event earlier this summer.
The core messages of the defense platform received overwhelming support from the delegates, Donnelly said, barring some opposition from Ron Paul supporters.
“This party is quite unified. It???s, to me, very refreshing,” she said.
Statements from the platform, as provided by CMR, are below: