Pentagon officially endorses an end to DADT, anti-gay bias
The results of the Pentagon’s ten-month assessment of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell have now been released. Here’s the money quote:
“Based on all we saw and heard, our assessment is that, when coupled with the prompt implementation of the recommendations we offer below, the risk of repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to overall military effectiveness is low. We conclude that, while a repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell will likely, in the short term, bring about some limited and isolated disruption to unit cohesion and retention, we do not believe this disruption will be widespread or long-lasting, and can be adequately addressed by the recommendations we offer below. Longer term, with a continued and sustained commitment to core values of leadership, professionalism, and respect for all, we are convinced that the U.S. military can adjust and accommodate this change, just as it has others in history.”
In remarks today, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates endorsed the report’s findings and strongly urged “the Senate to pass this legislation and send it to the president for signature before the end of this year.”
“Given the present circumstances, those that choose not to act legislatively are rolling the dice that this policy will not be abruptly overturned by the courts,” Gates said, warning that a court-imposed change would be “by far the most disruptive and damaging scenario I can imagine, and the one most hazardous to military morale, readiness and battlefield performance.”
The country is ready. The military is ready. The time for waiting has passed; the time for acting has finally come.
“For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’” an impatient Martin Luther King Jr. wrote from the Birmingham jail. “It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied’.”
No more waiting. No more excuses.
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545 comments Add your comment
AmVet
December 1st, 2010
8:35 am
Doggone, what a terrible trade!
More morning music from the Cat…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL_yON7–N8&feature=fvst
Normal
December 1st, 2010
8:35 am
SoCo,
No but I will be just as gay when I AM 90!
USinUK
December 1st, 2010
8:36 am
SoCo (and Normal) – or that he’s been to Gay Par-ee
Southern Comfort
December 1st, 2010
8:37 am
http://nolabels.org
If you’re tired of the partisan bs, there’s change coming on the horizon…
Southern Comfort
December 1st, 2010
8:38 am
Normal
Mick
December 1st, 2010
8:40 am
usinuk
Just another day in paradise down here at a balmy 75 degree’s. We are however, anticipating a cold front to move in tonite which will bring the temps down to a frigid 58 degree’s – c’mon baby light that fire…
Southern Comfort
December 1st, 2010
8:44 am
Mick
Just rub it in…
AmVet
December 1st, 2010
8:44 am
Mick, I feel so sorry for you!
I spent the T-day holiday in St. Augustine and that was real treat for me. Long walks on the beach…
A really sweet song that perfectly captures the feel of the coming winter here in Dixie…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBmSppk9n9c&feature=related
Common Sense isn't very Common
December 1st, 2010
8:49 am
AmVet@8:33 am
ex-pat, I would have loved to have gotten into that slip! (Too bad she had to eat 7,000 lbs. of mashed potatoes and turned into a human blimp…)
—————————-
Picturing Liz in a spandex slip
Southern Comfort
December 1st, 2010
8:50 am
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans intend to block action on virtually all Democratic-backed legislation unrelated to tax cuts and government spending in the current postelection session of Congress, officials said Tuesday, adding that the leadership has quietly collected signatures on a letter pledging to carry out the strategy.
And who says the GOP does not have their constituent’s concerns at heart. They want to be fiscally responsible, yet all they want to talk is tax cuts. WTF?????
Bosch
December 1st, 2010
8:52 am
Everyone ok over in Gwinnett County? Morning blogger peeps!
Doggone/GA
December 1st, 2010
8:52 am
“Everyone ok over in Gwinnett County?”
Yeah, that was a little too close for comfort. I’m not in Gwinnett, but I’m close!
Southern Comfort
December 1st, 2010
8:54 am
Southside’s ok, except for Locust Grove. That one hit close to home. Not to mention, the ABW was at work and was in close proximity to that one too.
Joe the Plutocrat (the artist formerly known as paleo-neo-Carlinist)
December 1st, 2010
8:54 am
rhetorical excercise; who would you prefer to be “on th wall” protecting your freedom; one of the gay Special Forces soldiers cited in the recent (August?) Atlantic Montly article (”…if I trust him to cover my a**, he can look at it…”), or the Navy SEAL recently accused to running guns (from Afghanistan and Iraq) to Mexican drug cartels? a person’s bedroom behavior has NO impact on battlefield performance. to the contrary, it would appear a person’s opinion of the bedroom behaviors of others does. and as has been noted over and over, most likely man gay soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors will choose to “don’t tell” and continue to serve with honor (or dishonor, as it were).
USinUK
December 1st, 2010
8:57 am
mick – 11:40 – you are an evil, evil person
Southern Comfort
December 1st, 2010
9:01 am
Joe
You’re making too much sense in the am…
You’re damn right. A person’s bedroom behavior has no impact on their battlefield performance. In addition, it’s downright offensive to me that the party that is so gung ho on personal responsibility and personal freedom is trying to control what people do behind closed doors in their own home. That’s the epitome of hypocracy in my book. That’s why I have reduced respect for many who claim to be defenders of freedom in one breath, and then advocate discrimination and government control over personal freedoms in the next.
Mystified
December 1st, 2010
9:14 am
Maybe it was already said, but saying the military is ok with this is not necessarily true. The REMFs are ok with it. The Marines, and other combat arms units are against it. As far as I’m concerned they are the only ones that count. What a clerk typist thinks about military policy doesn’t concern me in the least. Our focus should be on reducing the distractions to the guys on the fence who actually risk their safety for us.
Doggone/GA
December 1st, 2010
9:16 am
“Our focus should be on reducing the distractions to the guys on the fence who actually risk their safety for us”
and if you’ve got a guy on the front lines who’s more worried about his fellow soldiers bedroom behavior than he is about actually doing his job…do we really NEED him out there?
USinUK
December 1st, 2010
9:19 am
Doggone – haven’t you heard? if a gay guy wants to jump your bones, he’s gonna do it, even if he’s under fire from the Taliban
that’s how they roll
Southern Comfort
December 1st, 2010
9:21 am
Good question Doggone…
Mystified
December 1st, 2010
9:21 am
This “what goes on behind closed doors in my own home” excuse is weak. Drug use, prostitution, child molestation, necrophilia, bestiality, rape, and a myriad of other illegal and immoral things go on behind those same closed doors. The privacy of which does absolutely nothing to moderate their immorality or illegality. Just because your baseless morality allows you to accept what others deem immoral or at least inappropriate in no way makes them hypocritical for taking a stand against it. The love of personal responsibility and personal freedom does not equate to anarchy.
Southern Comfort
December 1st, 2010
9:22 am
if a gay guy wants to jump your bones
Are we talking about Evil Knievel type jumping?
dan
December 1st, 2010
9:22 am
The ATL-GAY Pride parade was a snooze festival, God don’t make ‘em as freaky as he/she used too back in the day, all hail the 80’s
Southern Comfort
December 1st, 2010
9:24 am
Mystified
You can legislate illegality with no problem. Immorality is a completely different subject. What may be immoral for one person may be culturally acceptable for someone else. There’s no way to equate the two. Funny how people want small government, but they still want the government in someone’s bedroom.
Doggone/GA
December 1st, 2010
9:26 am
“if a gay guy wants to jump your bones, he’s gonna do it, even if he’s under fire from the Taliban”
I’m terribly afraid I’m getting more than a little amusement out of the whole thing. Give some of those guys a taste of what it feels like to be a woman and not know if you can trust the guy next to you or not!
Bosch
December 1st, 2010
9:26 am
Mystified @ 9:21 –
And what, pray tell, does any of those activities you mentioned have to do with homosexuality or DADT?
Doggone and SoCo — glad to hear you are all okay!
Nice Guy
December 1st, 2010
9:27 am
“if a gay guy wants to jump your bones, he’s gonna do it, even if he’s under fire from the Taliban”
What? More rhetoric from the Left-nuts.
Bosch
December 1st, 2010
9:29 am
SoCo,
” What may be immoral for one person may be culturally acceptable for someone else. ”
The Episcopal Church is a good example of that — there have been rifts in the international Anglican community over homosexuality and polygamy. The African Bishops, many whom have multiple wives, like to tell the American folks that homosexuality is a sin, blah, blah, blah and they can’t condone it all the while the American Bishops take offense to the multiple wives thing.
Personally, I think they should all just shut up and mind their own business.
Nice Guy
December 1st, 2010
9:29 am
Doggone – “and if you’ve got a guy on the front lines who’s more worried about his fellow soldiers bedroom behavior ”
There are militarty responsibilities that take place in other places than the “front lines.” Many, many servicemen/woman never see a battlefield.
Bosch
December 1st, 2010
9:30 am
Jay must have slept in this morning.
Doggone/GA
December 1st, 2010
9:31 am
“This “what goes on behind closed doors in my own home” excuse is weak. Drug use, prostitution, child molestation, necrophilia, bestiality, rape, and a myriad of other illegal and immoral things go on behind those same closed doors”
But that is not the only argument being used. The things you’ve listed have implications beyond what goes on behind closed doors.
“Drug use” – has implications of danger to those around the user
“prostitution, child molestation,rape” – are crimes against a victim
“necrophilia” – again has, besides the ick factor, the problems of contamination from dead tissue spreading diseases
“bestiality” – is also a crime of cruelty to animals
Homosexuality, on the otherhand, when between two consenting adults – is a “victimless crime”
If it is immoral to YOU, it doesn’t necessarily follow that EVERYONE does, or even ought to, consider it immoral. And even if it is universally immoral (which it isn’t) it still doesn’t necessarily follow that it should be illegal.
Nice Guy
December 1st, 2010
9:32 am
Jay – “Based on all we saw and heard, our assessment is that, when coupled with the prompt implementation of the recommendations we offer below, the risk of repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to overall military effectiveness is low.”
Right. And people always tell the truth in exit polling as well. Sure.
Doggone/GA
December 1st, 2010
9:33 am
“There are militarty responsibilities that take place in other places than the “front lines.” Many, many servicemen/woman never see a battlefield.”
And what does that matter? Whoever they are, whatever job they do…what the guy next to them does in his bedroom is none of their business. They have a JOB to do. So do it, and keep your mind on your job…not the guy next to you that’s just doing HIS job.
Southern Comfort
December 1st, 2010
9:35 am
This “what goes on behind closed doors in my own home” excuse is weak. Drug use, prostitution, child molestation, necrophilia, bestiality, rape, and a myriad of other illegal and immoral things go on behind those same closed doors.
I just digested what you posted… So, you’re equating homosexuality with all those other offenses? And/Or are you saying that homosexuals also participate in those activites as well? Those things that you say are illegal and immoral have been legislated as illegal. Immoral has nothing to do with the legality of it.
As an example, when I lived in Alabama, there was a law passed that made it illegal to sell or purchase dildos. Why in the hell would legislators want to even waste time to do such a thing other than to control what people did in the privacy of their own home? There was a lady who sued to have the law overturned because her doctor had prescribed one for her. Has someone held up a bank with a dildo before? Has someone been stabbed to death with one? That’s sheer lunacy. If you don’t like them or don’t want to see them, then don’t purchase them or frequent shops where they are sold. Easy solution to an easy problem.
Southern Comfort
December 1st, 2010
9:36 am
Personally, I think they should all just shut up and mind their own business.
My hero has spoken!!
barking frog
December 1st, 2010
9:37 am
those moralists among you, explain please the moral
high ground ot the Congress debating tax cuts in the
billions for the wealthy while allowing the unemployment
benefits for millions expire. you can thank Scott Brown
for that. many of those ‘combat veterans’ may soon
be on the street with no money but they will probably
have weapons.
USinUK
December 1st, 2010
9:38 am
doggone – “Give some of those guys a taste of what it feels like to be a woman and not know if you can trust the guy next to you or not!”
but … but … but … that’s different! that’s as nature intended!
Bosch
December 1st, 2010
9:39 am
SoCo,
Well, you personally made my day with this:
“Has someone held up a bank with a dildo before? Has someone been stabbed to death with one?”
The mental image alone is enough to keep me going through the day!
Intown
December 1st, 2010
9:39 am
If this lame duck Congress accomplishes nothing else, I will think it a success if they repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Bosch
December 1st, 2010
9:40 am
explain please the moral
high ground ot the Congress debating tax cuts in the
billions for the wealthy while allowing the unemployment
benefits for millions expire
Yes, I too would like that one explained as well. Thanks.
Normal
December 1st, 2010
9:42 am
Has someone held up a bank with a dildo before? Has someone been stabbed to death with one?
Poked in the eye, maybe…
Joe the Plutocract (the artist formerly known as paleo-neo-Carlinist)
December 1st, 2010
9:50 am
SoCo, my only issue with your 9:01 is the fact you “respect(ed)” the GOP pimps in the first place.
Dusty
December 1st, 2010
9:54 am
Well, good morning, all you silly people. OK, I laughed a little too even though there were some words that were not in my dictionary. No, I won’t ask you folks. You might tell me. Anyway, I live not too far from Sphghetti Junction and no snow has fallen, just a hunk of concrete on I285. OH well, what’s new?
Snow in merry old England, USinUK? Is Tiny Tim singing? Scrooge growling? Christmas is coming!!
Joe the Plutocract (the artist formerly known as paleo-neo-Carlinist)
December 1st, 2010
9:57 am
Mystified, and illegal arms trading (aforementioned Navy SEAL), murder (”fragging” and Balckwater shoot ‘em ups), rape (Marines in Okinawa), etc. take place out in the open (battlefield). what’s your point? and ah yes, the REMF card. first it was “all soldiers and officers support DADT” but in light of the recent study (2/3 could care less) you’re now suggesting that “combat” units are all that matter. you wouldn’t by any chance be a lawyer. lobbyist, or preacher?
Nice Guy
December 3rd, 2010
3:40 pm
Make that 11/30, not yeseterday….