I was a little dismayed to read that the repeal of the DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL military policy failed. The policy prohibits homosexuals from serving openly in the military; if they reveal themselves to be gay, they are discharged.
The policy has been in force for 17 years and Obama promised he would try to get it repealed; the motion failed by two or so votes.
A Pentagon study released this week showed that the risk to the armed services would be very low if the policy was repealed. It was interesting in the sense that it showed most young soldiers as not having a problem at all serving with gays. It seems that the older soldiers had the most problems.
This is obviously a generational problem where dudes from my generation and the next still displayed those discriminatory tendencies learned at their father’s feet. Well too bad-unlearn them!
One of those old farts, Senator McCain, pointed to combat troops in the Marines and in the Army having problems with the repeal. First, it was a minority of those combat troops that had a problem and the problem is not them but their older commanding officers that have the problem and communicate that to the troops in their command. Soldiers are trained to obey any and all orders, so one can see why they would have problems with openly gay soldiers.
The tide is changing and it is only a matter of time BUT what bothers me is that the top military brass along with Defense Secretary Gates, testified before Congress that the policy should be repealed and that no negative impact on units is indicated by its repeal AND still the old twits in Congress would not listen…why?
Gays are serving in the military and most soldiers know who they are and life goes on. When I was in the military in the 60s this was not even an issue ever discussed because it was not an issue and gays, I guess, just stayed in the closet.
Well this is a different world now and we need to adapt to it, so get your head out of your asses and lets move on…
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