From a progressive standpoint, the most significant positive to come out of the president’s state of the union last week was his commitment to ending the military’s arbitrary and discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
In practice, however, expect the military to drag its feet — even if top military officials say they also are committed.
Today, for instance, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Congress the military was committed to the repeal, with Mullen offering some pretty strong language:
“No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens,” Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said it was his personal belief that “allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do.”
However, there is a caveat. The repeal is going to be phased in over a number of years — to give the military time to address some of what it considers to be sticky issues:
Mr. Gates said that the review would examine changes that might have to be made to Pentagon policies on benefits, base housing, fraternization and misconduct and that it would also study the potential effect on unit cohesion, recruiting and retention.
For further information, Mr. Gates said he would ask the Rand Corporation to update a 1993 study on the effect of allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly. That study concluded that gay service members could serve openly if the policy was given strong support from the military’s senior leaders.
Mr. Gates and Admiral Mullen were responding to President Obama’s campaign pledge to end “don’t ask, don’t tell,” which the president, after a year of saying of little about it, reaffirmed in his State of the Union address last week.
“The question before us is not whether the military prepares to make this change, but how we best prepare for it,” Mr. Gates told the committee. “We have received our orders from the commander in chief and we are moving out accordingly. However, we also can only take this process so far as the ultimate decision rests with you, the Congress.”
This might seem reasonable, but it leaves gay and lesbian soldiers in limbo and signals to straight members of the military that their gay and lesbian comrades are somehow different — so different, in fact, that even with the lifting of sanctions against them they must be treated differently.
The military was desegregated — which meant mixing black soldiers with racist whites — and women have been serving with only minor incident (on the part of neanderthal men who should be drummed out). Gay and lesbian soldiers have been serving honorably and will continue to do so.
Don’t ask, just end the policy.
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