But with the USA engaged on multiple fronts in Muslim countries now and possibly for years to come, our Yankee cousins may indeed be forced to undertake one of those “lesser evil” decisions where egalitarianism takes a temporary backseat for the sake of rank-and-file morale and preservation of life.

I found the second paragraph particularly interesting because I think these are areas where there are large differences between the Canadian and U.S. armies, and “society” seems to accept quite different things in each of those countries. I agree that American society is quite tolerant of more discrimination within the armed forces than in other walks of life, but in Canada I am not sure that’s still true. I think that the answers to some of the questions you raise about fifth column dangers would be quite different in each of the countries. I would not be surprised at all if Fort Hood does prompt the U.S. to start taking some precautions that protesters will call “discrimination”. I would be amazed if such precautions were ever allowed in Canada, no matter what the provocation (and I certainly don’t think the Canadian army is any less likely to have such a fifth column in its ranks).