Over the last few weeks the Left has been all about dissing gays in the guise of going after Jeff Gannon. Now, they are all for Gay rights. Go figure.
It has always been known that the military’s policy on gays was illogical at best, and discriminatory at worst. But this new report shows that it has also been extremely costly. But the cost of discharging gays is not just in financial terms. Some of those discharged have held skills sorely needed in today’s military. Over 90 nuclear power engineers, 150 rocket and missile specialists, and 49 nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare specialists have been discharged.
This is in response to Rep. Marty Meehan planning to introduce a Bill to repeal "Don’t Aks, Don’t Tell." The question being, will those who want to join the military or are currently in approve of serving with gays? Will they be comfortable living in close quarters with people who might be "checking them out?" Will repealing "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" harm enlistment and retention?
Of course, despite this being a Clinton policy which GWB never did away with, the author has to take a shot at Bush (what else can we expect from someone writing an article for the DU, who has also published articles for many ultra leftist mediums, as well as for a journal, the Palestine Chronicle, that supports terrorism?)
Since last summer, the Pentagon has called up over 5,600 specially trained members of the IndividualReady Reserve, former soldiers who have completed their military service and do not participate in ongoing training. Requiring these service members to re-enlist has accurately been called a “back-door draft.†The Defense Department said this is necessary because of the shortage of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. But to some extent, this necessity has been created by the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell†policy.
Yada, yada, yada, it’s all Bush’s fault, he’s the boogeyman.
I have to wonder, though: if all that is done is to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, doesn’t that mean that the previous policy of searching to make sure that there are no gays in the military will be back in place? Have to see how the Bill shakes out.
Just a few comments:
1) “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was indeed from the Clinton era, but it was the compromise that the Pentagon insisted upon rather than open up the military to full participation by gays and lesbians as Clinton had initially proposed. Armies from the Netherlands and Israel, among others, have successfully incorporated gays and lesbians into their militaries. Since the implementation of “DADT”, the number of people expelled from the military for being gay has hit all time highs. It is proving to be an economic failure and should be reevaluated.
2) The last thing that a gay person would want to do is try to seduce someone who isn’t interested in mutual attraction, especially if they are potentially going to react in a negative and open way to an advance. Give us credit. Would you openly make an advance on a woman who makes it clear that she hates men? If someone you do know would, would that make you feel that the rest of your straight counterparts would act in that way?
3) The Pentagon fired a number of linguists before 9/11 because they were gay (and likely here because they were persecuted in their countries of origin). Among them were speakers of Arabic, Farsi and other languages that are important now in the war on terrorism. The last time I heard about the 9/11 attacks, we were bemoaning the amount of untranslated communications that had been intercepted that might have held clues to the 9/11 attacks.
4) Yes, Gannon (or whatever his name really is) is identified as a gay man. However, he is also reported to be a male prostitute, and was able to get into the Bush Press room for many months despite the increased security and his lack of press creditials. The Left is condemning this guy not because he is gay, but because he was perpertrating a lie and no one in the White House security seemed to notice. There are good and bad people in all social groups. This guys sounds like a bad apple to me. Does that make the rest of us bad?
5) One of the best ways to overcome stereotypical thinking about gays is to get to know someone who is gay.
6) Don’t assume that there aren’t gay people in all ranks of the Republican Party and conservative organizations. Some of the most rabid homophobes are fighting their own sexuality.
Im debating at Kansas’s state debate tourny this weekend and my case is about repealing the DADT policy. I started off just doing it for a good case, but i’ve ended up learning a $hit load about it. There are 8 people who are dead because of it, 3 that i know of were beat to death because some1 foud out they were gay through illegal means. Others get threatened all the time and the military can’t do anything about it. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been thrown out the window just to recruit and train people to replace the skilled gay service members who were discharged. We need to remember that in the 1950’s no one wanted black and whites to serve together, but Truman went through and look at us now…stronger than ever and no one cares. It’s only and issue because we make it one. Repeal DADT and replace it with the MREA, that will solve all issues.