Don't Ask, Don't Tell Advice for Obama: Hide the Change
By Nikki Schwab, Washington Whispers.
A new report on the military came out today from the Center for American Progress and, not surprisingly, it called for the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." The document could be influential, as it is coming from the progressive think tank whose president, John Podesta, is being borrowed to serve as Barack Obama's transition team leader. But in reality, ditching the Clinton-era law could be politically dicey for Obama. While the president-elect has said he supports getting rid of it, retired Air Force Gen. Merrill McPeak, who supported Obama early on and helped beef up his national security cred, told Whispers previously that he thinks the ban should stay, and he's surely not alone.
In addition, with two wars raging, among other national security concerns, it may not be a big priority. "He has got a lot on his plate," Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha tells Whispers. "I'm not sure what his position will be." The two have yet to talk about it personally but Murtha says he's heard people chattering about it. "I'm sure they'll talk to me before they do anything," he assures us. If Obama does decide to tackle the challenge, CAP Senior Fellow and report coauthor Lawrence Korb suggests sticking the repeal into a bill with a whole bunch of other things. "Don't make it a focus," he tells Whispers. "Make it a whole thing about military readiness."
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Reader Comments
DADT
Making this change would have tremendous repercussions on an already challenged military. With this change the military would then be required to promote a certain number of gays, all of there personnel records would require altering to account for sexual preferences, family housing would be required to allow same sex couples to reside amongst the straight people, and I'm sure the bi-sexual community would want equal, yet different, recognition.
This whole thing stinks of dirty politics and minority groups grabbing power.
Let's not conduct social experiments in the military, as they have plenty of other tasks to worry about.
DADT Harms Military Preparedness
Our armed services are facing an increasingly serious manpower problem. We have to recruit additional trainees, and do a better job of retaining qualified officer and enlisted personnel.
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) hurts our recruitment and retention efforts in three separate ways:
First, there are the DADT discharges themselves. We have thrown away the equivalent of an Army light division since “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” began. The losses have been especially serious in scarce skill areas, such as linguistics, medicine, and nuclear science. (Losses average 900 per year.)
Second, DADT prevents tens of thousands of qualified young people from considering enlistment, or enrollment in college ROTC. (A loss of nearly 41,000 recruits.)
Third, DADT causes thousands of highly trained, highly qualified officers and enlisted men to curtail their military careers voluntarily, even though they have served honorably and well, want to continue to serve, and have skills the military needs. (Losses are more than 2500 per year – almost an Army brigade annually.)
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is a foolish policy that jeopardizes our military preparedness. It should be repealed.
Civil Rights
To not support an immediate end to discrimination is unconstitutional. If we are to truly believe our military is the defenders of freedom, then there is no room for unequal treatment of homosexuals.
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