Sorry General Putz, er, Pace. Just like Bush’s illegitimate war, there are no such things as “do-overs.”

We are, of course, referring to the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s recent backpedaling after saying homosexual acts “are immoral” and then likening them to adultery.

“I do not believe that the armed forces of the United States are well served by saying through our policies that it’s OK to be immoral in any way,” Pace said, referring to the recent attempts to repeal the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

After facing substantial criticism for his comments, the Pentagon’s top general said last Tuesday that he should not have voiced his personal view that homosexuality is immoral and should have just stated his support for the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

Note: No apology was given.

As illustrated in this week’s editorial cartoon below, Pace’s comments are a public spit-in-the-face to the estimated 65,000 gay and lesbian servicemembers currently serving in silence, as well as hundreds of thousands of GLBT veterans, such as Marine Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, the first soldier to be injured in the current Iraq war.

Alva lost his right leg after stepping on a landmine in March 2003 and was awarded the Purple Heart from President Bush for his service to the country. He later told America that he is gay.

Pace’s rotten tomato besmirches the sacrifice that gay and lesbian servicemembers make and have made – but we know better, and the world is catching on.

In an op-ed article for the New York Times earlier this year, former Joint Chief’s chair Gen. John Shalikashvili wrote that conversations he had with gay soldiers showed him “that gays and lesbians can be accepted by their peers.” The former chair stated, “I now believe that if gay men and lesbians served openly in the United States military, they would not undermine the efficacy of the armed forces.”

Don’t believe Shalikashvili? How about asking the 14 of the 16 NATO nations that already allow gays and lesbians to serve openly? It seems to be working just fine for them.

Instead of making disparaging statements about gays and immorality, Pace should give the DADT policy itself the “moral” treatment: The policy forces men and woman to tell half-truths; that is, they must live a lie in order to serve in the U.S military. If that doesn’t upset Pace’s moral compass, then maybe he should take a long, hard look at that “upbringing” he keeps referring to.