You all know what the sexual depravity of serving in a combat zone does to a man?It is sick to see this publicly displayed... it is between West and his wife. The last line there shows his commitment- many men desire any available woman when overseas for years, cut him some slack!
While I shudder at the thought of defending Allen West, of all people, I feel that these quotations would certainly be more reasonable in context. They'd been married for four years and the guy was suddenly half the world away from his wife, it's entirely natural that he'd try to keep their relationship's sexual intimacy alive even if the only available method of communication was this awkward and ham-fisted attempt at snail-mail handwritten sexting. The "porn star" line just sounds to me like typical mid-coitus dirty talk that plenty of healthy couples do, it only seems weird because it's written down. Hell, I know I'd be ashamed to read a transcript of things I've said during sex; West was probably just trying hard there and didn't realize how weird it probably sounded.
Also, the "non-negotiable" line and the bit about the two piece bathing suits sound like they were probably just attempts at flirtateous jokes. Really, I think things like this are going to sound much worse if someone just cherry-picks out a handful of lines to share. The only thing I find truly weird, personally, is the bit about God juxtaposed with sexual desire, but I feel even that's probably not too strange for a devoutly religious married couple (E.g., see Song of Solomon for the Bible's God-approved sexual content!).
But really, I don't think you can assume much about this couple's relationship based on a handful of lines from a letter. I kinda feel bad for them that something that was so obviously intended to be private somehow ends up on the Internet. It's also creepy that a south Florida gossip blogger somehow got his hands on a letter that was written a decade ago, but I suppose that's a different argument entirely.
Ultimately, while I really don't like Allen West at all- he's easily one of the country's worst sitting Congressmen and the very definition of a HP- I don't feel that this scandal is nearly as bad as it seems. And yeah, he's incredibly anti-women, but it's a stretch to relate this letter to his political beliefs.
Now, if you'll excuse me, the fact that I just typed something in support of Rep. West is giving me the overwhelming urge to curl up into the fetal position and shake uncontrollably. I feel that I might have to donate my savings to Alan Grayson's campaign or something so I can even out my partisan karma.
These two. The first from someone who has actually been in combat, and the latter from someone criticizing the publicizing of such letters for moral reasons.
