Don't ask, don't tell" How dumb is that?

Don't ask, don't tell" How dumb is that?

"Wrongheaded" says an editorial in the Register-Guard

see also: Bush's stop loss policy enforced - Gays sue for reinstatement

This policy has to rank as the dumbest policy in any modern military in the world. That of course would have mean the US Military establishment was modern beyond all those smart bombs and superman like x-ray equipment they have at their disposal.

The editorial points out;

Among the highly qualified soldiers who were kicked out of the services last year because of their sexual orientation were Arab language specialists; rocket and missile specialists; and nuclear, chemical and biological warfare specialists.

Now anyone running a small business or a large mega corporation would have said, we need these guys, what do I care if they are gay, heck they have been doing it for us all along before we found out he or she was gay.

They would ask further, "how will this affect our ability to respond to the marketplace, are we giving our competitors an advantage?

The Military should if for no other reason than it is the right thing to do, allow gays and lesbians to serve because they need every man and woman they can get their hands on. Personally I would not want to join, given your chances are pretty good you could get blown to bits in Iraq, but gays and lesbians are like everyone else. Some want to serve, have been serving and they are just as good at it as any other person.

- Rick Barnes

A wrongheaded policy: 'Don't ask, don't tell' is a national disgrace

There should be a contest to try to uncover a dumber, more embarrassing, less productive military policy than the disgraceful "don't ask, don't tell" pogrom against openly homosexual service members.

First prize could be a copy of the U.S. Constitution, which had already left the building when outraged generals slapped President Clinton (the draft dodger!) upside the head for having the unmitigated gall in 1993 to suggest lifting the ban on allowing gays and lesbians to legally die defending freedom in the uniforms of the U.S. military.

The don't ask, don't tell policy was the "compromise" that rose from the ashes of Clinton's bungled attempt to do the right thing. It's a classic of Orwellian Pentagon doublespeak. Presumably, as long as homosexual service members kept their sexual orientation camouflaged ("don't tell"), the military wouldn't actively attempt to hunt them down and drum them out of the service ("don't ask").

In reality, the Pentagon was hardly blase about tolerating gay gunnery sergeants and lesbian logistics officers. Since the policy went into effect in 1994, more than 1,000 soldiers, sailors, Air Force members and Marines have been involuntarily discharged every year. Not for poor performance or lack of courage under fire. They lost their jobs as a result of a form of discrimination that is illegal in almost every other workplace in America.

How's this for a Catch-22: Air Force physician Monica Hill got the boot simply by asking for something that is automatically granted for straight soldiers - leave to care for a terminally ill partner. But because Hill's partner of 14 years was female, she was found unfit for further service. "It's right here in the manual."

Link to editorial: A wrongheaded policy: 'Don't ask, don't tell' is a national disgrace