Levin: Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell. McCain: 'now is not the time'

[babylonsister]

http://www.freep.com/article/20100202/NEWS15/100202034/1318/Levin-Repeal-Dont-Ask-Dont-Tell

Levin: Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell

By TODD SPANGLER
FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF


WASHINGTON – Opening a hearing on the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy on gays in the military, Michigan Democrat and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin said it’s time to repeal what he considers a discriminatory policy that hurts military effectiveness.

“I did not find the arguments used to justify ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ convincing when it took effect in 1993, and they are less so now,” Levin said.

Levin and the Armed Services Committee heard today from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the policy. In his State of the Union speech last week, President Barack Obama said it is time to work toward ending the practice.

U.S. Sen. John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said now is not the time to change the policy.

Levin, on the other hand, argued there “is not evidence that the presence of gay and lesbian colleagues would damage our military’s ability to fight.” In fact, he said, it’s hurting the military’s ability to do its job in some cases – such as where needed linguists have been forced out at a time when they are needed.

“Thousands of troops – 13,500 by one estimate – have been forced to leave the military under the current policy,” Levin said. “Certainly that number includes many who could help the military complete its difficult and dangerous missions.”

Gates told the committee the Defense Department will take most of the next year to study how best to lift the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military, though the ultimate decision will rest with Congress.

The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy springs from a 1993 compromise which presupposes that service members will not be asked about their sexual orientation, though by law they can still be questioned and dismissed for engaging in homosexual conduct.

[jwirr]

1. If not now - when?

[yellowcanine]

7. Exactly. The time will never be right for McCain and others. We need to leave them by the side of

the road, just as the segregationists were left by the side of the road in the 1960s. If they want to catch up, they will. If not, good riddance.

[MindandSoul]

14. Should have been done 10 years ago at least! If fact, it should NEVER have existed!

Now is not too soon! Now is the most perfect time we'll ever have!
Anything later than NOW is too late!

[napi21]

2. Why hasn't Gates & Mullins told these Pub Sens about all the

very necessary military peole who have MANDATORY capabilities, like speaking Farsi etc, been terminated because they're gay and THAT harmed the military capabilities?

[babylonsister]

4. They know the facts; their 'job' is to obstruct this admin in any way

possible.

[sharp_stick]

3. This is not the time

has become the standard puke line to every proposal put forward by any Democrat. They need to fit the members of the Senate with one of those electronic dog collars (suitably modified to fit the jowls of the average repuke) and everytime someone spits this moronic phrase out a 15 minute burst at full power is set off.

[Jennicut]

5. Of course McLame thinks now is not the time.

He still thinks it is the 1960's or something.

[and-justice-for-all]

6. Fuck you McNutty and your war machine..nt

[Cha]

8. mcpalin is always a day late and a dollar short..

Maybe his wife Cindy should be asked?

[flpoljunkie]

9. Yet his closest Senate buddy is the closeted, by numerous accounts, Lindsay Graham.

It's is our shame when gays are serving well and openly in the European Union, Israel and other countries.

[Orsino]

10. Eternal war means it'll never be time. n/t

[centristgrandpa]

11. does this mean mccain is going to...

suspend his senator duties to deal with this national security issue?

[David Zephyr]

12. McCain's "not the time" is because he's in a primary battle with a wingnut.

I hope Hayworth and the teabaggers take McCain out once and for all. He stands for nothing but his own ambiton and always has. He should have gone to prison in the 1980's.

[Soylent Brice]

13. K&R