Critics of gay ban repeal hit at Gates, Mullen

[unhappycamper]

Critics of gay ban repeal hit at Gates, Mullen
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 3, 2010 20:02:12 EST

Socially conservative House members on Wednesday echoed their Senate colleagues’ criticism of the Pentagon’s proposal to repeal the military’s ban on open service by gays, with the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee expressing “serious concerns” about overturning the ban during wartime and calling for repeal without providing input from the four service chiefs.

“Congress deserves to see from the services concrete, in-depth evidence that readiness concerns require a change and that such a change would not degrade wartime military readiness in any measurable, significant way,” said Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., addressing Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen. “Many of us on this committee have serious concerns with putting our men and women in uniform through such a divisive debate while they are fighting two wars.”

And, McKeon added later, “This position in support of repeal comes before your service chiefs have had the opportunity to conduct an in-depth review of the impact a repeal would have on military readiness. It seems that your path places the cart before the horse.”

Mullen replied that he was not speaking for the chiefs when he stunned the Senate Armed Services Committee the previous day by saying that “it is my personal and professional belief that allowing homosexuals to serve openly would be the right thing to do” and that he backed Gates’ announcement — made minutes earlier at the same hearing — that he “fully supports” President Obama’s call for repeal.

Mullen told the House committee that he’d discussed the issue with them “at considerable length” and that “they will have the opportunity” to voice their views. Gates has ordered two internal reviews: a 45-day effort to examine ways to enforce the law in a “fairer manner,” and a review that will take much of the year to examine all aspects of repeal’s potential impact on the force.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/02/military_dont_ask...

[NYC_SKP]

1. Oh bullshit. If we have to wait until there are no wars, we'll be waiting forever. n/t

[sui generis]

2. and the men and women in uniform who are fighting two wars

who happen to be gay just don't count? Sorry, McKeon, that aircraft carrier has left the harbor, and approximately 10% of the sailors on it are gay already.

Ask me how I know.

Dumbass.

Oh yeah - The Charles Vincent - carrier that serves the Haiti operation now, a.k.a. the Carla Vee.

[Toasterlad]

3. Just ONCE I'd Like To Hear Someone Say, "Senator, You're a Bigot"

Anyone who doesn't see that the need to "conduct a study" for how allowing gay men and women to serve openly is exactly as insulting and ludicrous as "conducting a study" to allow blacks to serve in the military is a bigoted asshole.

[ShadowLiberal]

4. Indeed, we need an ultra outspoken Liberal on civil rights to grab attention like this

The conservatives have people like Michelle Bachman, and Demint willing to say totally outrageous stuff, yet we don't have anyone willing to do the same on civil rights issues. We don't have anyone in congress willing to step up and call the opposition out for being the intolerant bigots they are on stuff like gay rights. Or if we do have someone, we don't have someone who the media will listen to and air stories about when they do stuff like that.

[Crowman1979]

5. How much do you wanna bet that all of these social conservatives are CHICKENHAWKS?

[offog]

6. Wanna know what's with the stall tactics?

I was reading a discussion thread on this at another site, and one person made the point that the Repugs are probably trying to stall things until after the mid-term elections in the hopes that they'll win enough seats to ditch the repeal of DADT.

As for the concern about degrading "wartime military readiness", yo, dudes, the Armed Forces are seriously short of personnel! You need all the soldiers you can get. That's why you have this "stop-loss" bullshit. You can't afford to turn away any qualified people willing to serve.

Hey, does anybody remember the episode of "The West Wing" where they discussed allowing gays in the military? The Chair of the Joint Chief of Staff, an Admiral, was played by John Amos, who is a big, impressive-looking African-American man. He was talking with a couple of politicians who were trotting the tired old arguments about how allowing gays in the military would be disruptive and bad for morale, etc. The Admiral said (paraphrasing) "Uh huh. And fifty years ago, they would have said the same thing about me."

[gaspee]

7. So I guess Israeli and European armies

Are ineffective because they don't have a ban on GLBT service members. Good to know! And I wonder, how do American troops interact with the GLBT troops of our allies?

[TexasObserver]

8. Recommend. (too late to be counted, though)

I hate it when that happens. 24 hours isn't enough time for the Recommend window.