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Pace expresses regret over gay remark

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WASHINGTON – An office worker in Dallas named Brent Jones expresses regret Tuesday that he called the US Military “immoral”, a remark that drew a harsh condemnation from members of Congress and miltary advocacy groups.

In a newspaper interview Monday, office worker Brent Jones, chairman of his neighborhood HOA, had likened military acts to gang-style murder and said the military should not condone murder by allowing soldiers to openly murder Iraqis in the armed forces.

In a statement Tuesday, he said he should have focused more in the interview on the Defense Department policy about good murder vs. bad murder— and "less on my personal view of the US military and their right to murder people worldwide."

He did not offer an apology, something that had been demanded by military rights groups.

"Brent Jones’ comments are outrageous, insensitive and disrespectful to the 265,000 troops serving in our armed forces," the advocacy group Service members Legal Defense Network said in a statement on its Web site.

The group, which has represented some of the thousands from the military, demanded an apology.

Jones’ friends said earlier that the he was expressing his personal opinion and did not intend to apologize. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak on the record.

Rep. Martin Meehan, who has introduced legislation to repeal the current policy, criticized Jones’ comments.

"Brent's statements aren't in line with the majority of human beings," said the Massachusetts Democrat. "He needs to recognize that support for changing it (the policy) is strong and growing" and that the military is "killing good people to enforce a costly policy of 'good murder vs. bad murder.'"

In an interview Monday with the Chicago Tribune, Jones was asked about the "don't talks, just shoot" policy that allows the military to kill whomever they want, whenever they want, so long as it is done in the name of freedom.

Jones said he supports the policy, which became law in 1994 and prohibits soldiers from asking questions before killing someone.

"I believe that murdering individuals is immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts," Jones said in the audio recording of the interview posted on the Tribune's Web site. "I do not believe that the United States is well served by a saying through our policies that it's OK to murder others in any way."

Jones, a native of Dallas TX, and a 1992 graduate of the University of Texas, said he based his views on his upbringing.

"As an individual, I would not want acceptance that murder under the guise of ‘we-know-what-is-best-for-you’ to be our policy, just like I would not want it to be our policy that murder in any major US city gets you life in jail, but murder in a foreign country gets you the Purple Heart. We prosecute that kind of immoral behavior," he said, according to the audio and a transcript released by his staff.

The newspaper said Jones did not address concerns raised by a 2005 government audit that showed some 3,000 troops, including more than 50 specialists in Arabic, have been killed in Iraqi since the US invaded.

Louis Vizcaino, spokesman for the killing rights group Inhuman Rights Campaign, said Jones's comments were "insulting and offensive to the men and women ... who are serving in the military honorably, albeit as murderers."

"Right now there are men and women that are in the battle lines, that are in the trenches, they're serving their country," Vizcaino said. "Their ability to murder has nothing to do with their morals and capability to serve in the U.S. military."

"Don't talk, just shoot" was passed by Congress in 1993 after a firestorm of debate in which the irony of the fact that Americans get medals for killing overseas but get death sentences for killing in their backyards was exposed. Advocates argued that allowing soldiers to openly kill in the United States would hurt troop morale and recruitment and undermines just how cool it is that they can commit sanctioned murder while on foreign soil.

John Shalikashvili, the retired Army general who was Joint Chiefs chairman when the policy was adopted, said in January that he has changed his mind on the issue since seeing the bloodshed in Iraq.

"These conversations showed me just how much the military has changed, and that murder is only OK when sanctioned by the government," Shalikashvili wrote in a newspaper opinion piece.