Fox News reacted. They don't like anyone messing with their good ol' USA. They got experts, and political strategists, they even have black people now, you know, to show they are diverse. They all got together behind the message of "shouldn't change the military dress code to accept Sikhs", "if they want to serve , follow our code", all the while showing pictures of Taliban and other Muslim terrorists in the background. Wow Fox - Jon Stewart is right - you are the true spin masters, sitting on the bullshit mountain.
If you look back in American history, when "American" meant 'being white', and black people had to struggle to get their rights, struggle to share the same seat on the bus, struggle to enter the military, I am sure there was some other 'fox news' equivalent out there, opposing, digging in their heels, and rallying bigots behind them.
Let's look at their arguments:
1. Beard and mustache hinder usage of gas masks and other equipment.
Really? So Sikhs have been in the military for hundreds of years, without using proper equipment eh? And if it is the case that somehow our military's design was so narrow minded so as not to consider a mustache, wouldn't that be a design flaw?
2. It impacts morale and cohesion.
Oh right - wearing a turban is where we break cohesion 'cause obviously teamwork is defined by shaved faces. All these experts should really take some therapy from team building experts (aka the Military). A unit lives together, goes to battle together, protects each other and lay their lives for each other. That's how cohesion is built. A black person or a Sikh for that matter, is not why cohesion or discipline is broken.
And if you look at the history of Sikhs (you know, use google maybe?), you will see Sikhs have been a military class from the very beginning. Heck, our forefathers were born in the field. No kidding. And there was a Sikh who was part of the U.S. Military during WWI. No no, that's not a mistake - that does say world war 1. His name was Bhagat Singh Thind (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagat_Singh_Thind).
In allied forces, thousands of other Sikhs laid their lives and World War II saw even more participation. Here's a link where you can read all about it (http://www.sikhroots.com/sikh-literature/history/3014-sikhs-in-world-war-ii).
Oh and I forgot their last argument -
3. But we are a bunch of bigoted naysayers unless ofcourse it is a republican move.
Right.
So, feel lucky U.S. army that you are getting warriors who have 'fighting for the righteous' in their blood. Here's a few more stories of Sikh bad-assery -
http://www.badassoftheweek.com/21sikhs.html
http://www.badassoftheweek.com/maibhago.html
Rejoice.
