Per the AP, via today’s Rutland Herald:
Retired Marine Gen. James Jones, the White House’s national security adviser, said this month he wasn’t sure the policy would be overturned.
“We have a lot on our plate right now,” he said.
There is concern that reopening the socially and politically divisive question of gays and lesbians in the ranks could place an additional burden on a military stretching to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
So here’s my question:
How, exactly, does not pulling units apart, not forcing soldiers to lie and not forcing them conceal aspects of their lives from their colleagues place an additional burden on anyone?
Let’s turn this around:
How much of a burden is it for us to fire soldiers who have served with honor, who are fluent in Arabic, who have cost us millions of dollars in training?
“We have a lot on our plate right now?”
So why are we wasting our time getting rid of people whose only crime are the words “I am gay?”
And how much of a problem do we think this will be when 58% of the population supports repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell??
Unlike some people, I’m not in a serious rush over this. I’m fine with getting an act of Congress to repeal it, and as long as this happens in this congressional session, that’s great. But this concern troll idiocy is simply ludicrous.
There’s no serious political force opposing this repeal and honestly, this is the only argument they’ve got left:
it was an unnecessary farce when it was implemented, and it’s an unnecessary farce today.
I think it’s appeal is to those who are so insecure in their own sexuality (this includes the radical right wing religious zeolots), they’re afraid they might like a homosexual experience … so to keep their self imposed and self directed macho charade complete they do anything to be an anti-gay.
That not only includes “Don’t ask, don’t tell”ing but also murders such as what happened to Mathew Shephard along with a slew of less serious crimes of violence; job and housing discrimination; marriage and more of this ilk.
The problem herein being the totally unsupported framing of this issue as a military readiness thing has been swallowed hook, line and sinker by many well intentioned folks.