When Marine Corps Generals Can't Speak Their Mind

Why must expressing the viewpoint that homosexual behavior is immoral always be followed by "regret" if not "remorse?" Reading comments by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace regarding the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, I cynically predicted to myself that all of the usual groups would be demanding an apology in the morning. But what I did not truly expect is that he would actually give them one. But did he really give them one, or did they take whatever token statement he was likely forced to subsequently express and spin it in the mainstream media? What happened to freedom of speech and freedom of religion? Just once can there be people who are not afraid to say what they think and spit in the eye of those who try to smother their viewpoints? I believe in the premise of the civil rights movement, but what have we created when every time anyone speaks their mind about anything, they are forced to get behind a podium and apologize for offending this movement or that?