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June 20, 2004

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Helps Terrorists

By Byron LaMasters

If for no other reason, this is why "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" needs to go. It's a simple issue. Our "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on gays in the military hampers our ability to fight the war on terrorism. The policy has undermined out military readiness as we fight the war on terrorism. The AP reports:

Even with concerns growing about military troop strength, 770 people were discharged for homosexuality last year under the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, a new study shows.

The figure, however, is significantly lower than the record 1,227 discharges in 2001 — just before the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Since "don't ask, don't tell" was adopted in 1994, nearly 10,000 military personnel have been discharged — including linguists, nuclear warfare experts and other key specialists.

The statistics, obtained from the Defense Manpower Data Center and analyzed by the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara, offers a detailed profile of those discharged, including job specialty, rank and years spent in the service.

"The justification for the policy is that allowing gays and lesbians to serve would undermine military readiness," said Aaron Belkin, author of the study, which will be released Monday. "For the first time, we can see how it has impacted every corner of the military and goes to the heart of the military readiness argument."

[...]

Hundreds of those discharged held high-level job specialties that required years of training and expertise, including 90 nuclear power engineers, 150 rocket and missile specialists and 49 nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare specialists.

Eighty-eight linguists were discharged, including at least seven Arab language specialists.

Brian Muller, an Army bomb squad team leader who had advanced training on weapons of mass destruction and served on a security detail for President Bush, said he was dismissed from duty after deciding to tell his commander he's gay.

"I didn't do it to get out of a war — I already served in a war," Muller, 25, said in an interview. "After putting my life on the line in the war, the idea that I was fighting for the freedoms of so many other people that I couldn't myself enjoy was almost unbearable."


It's outrageous. I'm confident that we'll see this policy changed should John Kerry be elected president. Bill Clinton didn't have the military stature to carry it though. John Kerry does.

Posted by Byron LaMasters at June 20, 2004 08:01 PM | TrackBack


Comments

You're more optimistic than am I, thinking that Kerry cares about the issue in a way that would cause him to expend political capital. But then, that's one of your jobs: keeping the rest of us hopeful.

Posted by: Houston at June 20, 2004 11:17 PM

In addition, it is not just Kerry v. Clinton - it is the post 9-11 world. We simply do not have the luxury of wasting military human capital because some people are squeamish about gays.

I recall reading at one point that, shortly after expelling so many gay, Arabic & Farsi linguists the military / intelligence apparatus did not have enough Arabic & Farsi linguists to translate important materials. That is unconscionable to put American lives at risk in the name of bigotry. Even if "middle america" does not accept gays, they should be receptive to the argument that we haven't a person to waste in the war on [real] terrorists.

Posted by: WhoMe? at June 20, 2004 11:28 PM
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