Well, frumps, I’m proud to announce that I stayed awake for the State of the Union Address, last night, which is a considerable feat these days somewhat akin to staying up for the Super Bowl or the Oscar Awards. It comes to about a four-hour commitment what with cable Pre-Game Shows, the actual SOTU, the Junior Varsity rebuttal speech and the Post Game Punditry which, because I was tuned to MSNBC, happened to include Chris Matthews’ memorable statement that the speech was so good (or something) that Matthews entirely forgot, for an hour, that Obama was black. WTF?!
There were, in my opinion, no jaw-dropping surprises in content. The ambience was rather as I expected, as well. Steely-eyed, Republican zombies who refused to react until, towards the end, that wily Obama painted them into a corner in which they’d come off as pompous, anti-populist jackasses if they didn’t show some emotion. One unexpected moment of melodrama occurred when Justice Alito pulled a mime version of Joe Wilson over Obama’s “gloves off” comments regarding the Supreme Court’s recent bout of campaign finance activism.
One bit that I was especially interested in didn’t come until the very end and was so briefly touched on that a brief yawn and it would have slid right on by – that was Obama’s reaffirmation to repeal the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy regarding homosexuals serving in the military. Basically, Obama’s message was the same as before – be patient, maybe this year. These were his exact words:
“This year — this year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are. It’s the right thing to do.”
At that point, many stood to applaud – but not the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who remained seated and expressionless, not far from the president. They did not applaud. That piece of political theater aside, it would be good for all, including the Joint Chiefs, to keep in mind that the President is, indeed, the Commander-in-Chief of the military and, as such, he has it in his power to begin the repeal process, at any time, by ordering a suspension of discharges from the services that are based solely on sexual orientation. Efforts to repeal the law could then proceed. The next step would be for Congress to overturn the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law; in anticipation, Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) has already sponsored a bill known as the Military Readiness Enhancement Act.
Nevertheless, unlike other issues cited in the SOTU that now have a specific plan going forward attached, Obama did not commit to that concrete intial step of issuing a presidential order to get the DADT repeal rolling.
McCain: “If it ain’t broke . . .”
As surely as the Summer follows Spring, John McCain ripped off his well-worn statement that is automatically triggered by any mention of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, in any venue for at least the last five years. Simultaneously, that statement went up on the Re-elect McCain website before the night was over.
Here’s last night’s iteration as reported by Talking Points Memo:
“In his State of the Union address, President Obama asked Congress to repeal the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy. I am immensely proud of, and thankful for, every American who wears the uniform of our country, especially at a time of war, and I believe it would be a mistake to repeal the policy.”
“This successful policy has been in effect for over fifteen years, and it is well understood and predominantly supported by our military at all levels. We have the best trained, best equipped, and most professional force in the history of our country, and the men and women in uniform are performing heroically in two wars. At a time when our Armed Forces are fighting and sacrificing on the battlefield, now is not the time to abandon the policy.”
Compare McCain’s position today with his campaign position in March, 2007 as reported by The Caucus blog:
“At a forum in New York on Thursday, Senator John McCain was asked a number of questions on myriad issues. While his position on the troop buildup is well known, he talked about a few other issues related to conservatives’ concerns about his candidacy.”
Asked about the military’s policy toward gays, the Clinton-era “don’t ask, don’t tell” philosophy, Mr. McCain, the Republican from Arizona, said:
“I recently had a conversation with some other military leaders on this issue and their point to me was ‘It’s working, so leave it alone. Generally, overall, it’s working.’ I don’t think there’s any doubt that there are evolving attitudes in America about many issues, including this one, but every military leader that I talk to, I say ‘Should we change it?’ They say, ‘It’s working.’ And right now we’ve got the best military we’ve ever had – the most professional, best trained, equipped and the bravest. And so I think it’s logical to leave this issue alone. I really do.”
Or this campaign comment covered by CNSNews.com:
“On March 8, 2008, Sen. McCain said, “I don’t think there’s any doubt that there are evolving attitudes in America about many issues, including this one, but every military leader that I talk to, I say, ‘Should we change it?’”
McCain continued: “They say, ‘It’s working.’ And right now we’ve got the best military we’ve ever had — the most professional, best trained and equipped, and the bravest. And so I think it’s logical to leave this issue alone. I really do.”
Senator McCain’s starting to sound a little like a broken record on this point. I realize that Toastmasters or some other “image factory” probably impressed McCain with the “consistent message” sermon but for Pete’s sake, sometimes it’s necessary to review policies after a number of years – especially if one is a “Presidential hopeful.”
DADT’s Checkered Past
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was introduced as a compromise measure in 1993 by then President Bill Clinton who, while campaigning for the Presidency, had promised to allow all citizens regardless of sexual orientation to serve openly in the military. (At the time, military regulations imposed a complete ban on those who are not heterosexual.) The concept was rejected by Congress in its passage of the Military Personnel Eligibility Act of 1993, which simply codified the existing standard set by the Defense Department in 1981. Clinton was forced to sign the resulting bill because it was passed by a veto-proof majority of Congress.
The result is a law that requires service members to live a lie about their sexual orientation in order to serve in the military. If it is discovered that a service member is homosexual that person can be immediately discharged regardless of rank or service record. In the fifteen years that the law has been in force, 13,000 soldiers have been discharged from the military due to the discovery of their sexual orientation.
The Pentagon’s principal justification for the policy continues to be that the presence of openly gay and lesbian personnel would interfere with the military’s ability to accomplish its mission. In this, as in so many other social justice issues, the US lags way behind, say – the militaries of Europe or Israel which did away with any homosexual bias years ago. So we actually have lots of hard data to suggest that this “unit cohesion” issue as it’s come to be known, is a non-issue. Nevertheless, the US military continues to harbor a fear that heterosexuals in the military harbor so much animus against gay people that they would be consumed by their aversion and would leave (or never enlist in) the military if it meant having to serve alongside gay comrades. Oddly enough, DoD seems to believe that it is powerless to prevent this hostility from interfering with military missions. (Sounds like there’s a bigger problem with heterosexual service members and their leaders than there is with gay soldiers who are determined to serve even in a hostile environment.)
McCain Cred
John McCain comes from a highly distinguished military line. His father and grandfather both rose to the rank of four-star admirals in the United States Navy. McCain, himself graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958. He became a naval pilot, flying ground-attack aircraft from aircraft carriers. During the Vietnam War, he nearly lost his life in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. McCain was shot down, in October of 1967, while on a bombing mission over Hanoi. He was badly injured, captured by the North Vietnamese and was held as a prisoner of war for seven years, until 1973.
Since his 1981 retirement from the Navy, John McCain has been a respected public servant and no one questions his loyalty, patriotism or courage. However, John McCain is now a presidential-level politician which requires a slightly different set of skills, one of which is maintaining a solid and loyal base of supporters while at the same time understanding the forces that shape public policy and the effects of the policies that are put in force. So let’s take a look at what John McCain actually said about the one issue in the SOTU that inspired him to make an official statement immediately after the speech. Here it is again:
“In his State of the Union address, President Obama asked Congress to repeal the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy. I am immensely proud of, and thankful for, every American who wears the uniform of our country, especially at a time of war, and I believe it would be a mistake to repeal the policy.”
“This successful policy has been in effect for over fifteen years, and it is well understood and predominantly supported by our military at all levels. We have the best trained, best equipped, and most professional force in the history of our country, and the men and women in uniform are performing heroically in two wars. At a time when our Armed Forces are fighting and sacrificing on the battlefield, now is not the time to abandon the policy.”
Given that statement we can parse out McCain’s arguments against repealing DADT:
- Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has been a successful policy
- It is supported by our military – at all levels
- We have the best trained, best equipped, and most professional force in the history of our country
- Now is not the time to abandon the policy
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has been a successful policy
This one beggars logic. McCain has taken a defensive position on DADT exactly because it is a seriously unsuccessful policy about which many politicians, jurists and members of the military are outspokenly critical. There would be no major political offensive mounted against DADT, and it’s repeal would not be a political campaign promise, if it were, indeed, a “successful policy.” I guess a lot depends on McCain’s definition of success in this instance.
Even ordinary American citizens on the street are preponderantly in favor of repealing DADT according to a recent Washington Post article:
“Polls have shown that a large majority of the American public favors allowing gay and lesbian people to serve openly in the U.S. military. A national poll conducted in May 2005 by the Boston Globe showed 79% of participants having nothing against openly gay people from serving in the military. In a 2008 Washington Post–ABC News poll, 75% of Americans – including 80% of Democrats, 75% of independents, and 66% of conservatives – said that openly gay people should be allowed to serve in the military.”
In June of this year, 77 members of Congress sent an open letter to the President, urging him to suspend investigations and discharges of service members in the Armed Forces because of their sexual orientation. “By taking leadership of the important issue of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” said Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL), “President Obama would allow openly gay and lesbian service members to continue serving their country and send a clear signal to Congress to initiate the legislative repeal process.”
Also this summer, the Center for American Progress issued a five-step plan for repealing DADT that begins with an executive order suspending discharges.
In the current political environment, policies that are “working” don’t get this kind of attention. Things that do get attention, right now, are policies that cost taxpayers money and threaten our national security – which DADT does. Here’s part of that picture taken from a Newsweek report from last January:
“While fighting two wars and struggling to keep enlistment levels up, the military has expelled at least 4,000 gay service members in recent years and 12,500 since 1993. At a time when Arabic linguists are in huge demand, around 80 have been discharged since 2003 for violating Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, according to gay-rights groups. Aubrey Sarvis, who heads the Service members Legal Defense Network, says he’s been quietly approached by the State Department for names of the discharged translators. “If they’re good enough for the State Department, why aren’t they good enough for the military?”
“About 13,000 service members have been booted from the military since the law took effect, including dozens of Arabic speakers whose skills are particularly prized by the military since the advent of the war on terror. While the number discharged for their sexuality has fallen from 1,273 in 2001 to 612 in 2006, Pentagon officials insist they are applying the law as fairly as ever. Gay-rights advocates disagree, suggesting the military — pressed for personnel amid an unpopular war — is willing to ignore sexual orientation when recruiting becomes more difficult. Last May, a CNN poll found that 79 percent of Americans feel that homosexuals should be allowed to serve in the military.”
Doesn’t sound like a successful or even an advisable policy to me. But that’s only half of the equation, when the military forces discharges, it costs money, lots of it. Here’s the rest of the equation from a ThinkProgress report:
“Since 1994, DADT has resulted in the discharge of more than 13,000 military personnel across the services, including approximately 800 with skills deemed “mission critical,” such as pilots, combat engineers, and linguists. According to a 2005 report from the Government Accountability Office, “the cost of discharging and replacing service members fired because of their sexual orientation during the policy’s first 10 years totaled at least $190.5 million — roughly $20,000 per discharged service member. In February, 2009 that figure was revisited and the Washington Post reported that the cost to the US Military of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy was actually $363 million for the period between 1994 and 2003.”
It’s hard to fathom how facts like these led McCain to conclude that the policy is “working well.”
It is supported by our military – at all levels
This is simply untrue and there is plenty of documentation to prove it. This comment was issued by Servicemembers Legal Defense Network’s Director of Law and Policy, Sharra Greer:
“Senator McCain’s comments are out of step with the overwhelming majority of the American people, and out of touch with the best interests of our armed forces. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ prevents our military from recruiting and retaining the best and brightest Americans, and undermines our country’s ability to assemble the strongest fighting force possible. Now, more than ever, elected officials should be primarily concerned about military readiness. Senator McCain’s defense of this counter-productive law is disrespectful to the more than 65,000 lesbian and gay service members on duty today.”
Lietuenant General Claudia Kennedy, General Wesley Clark, Brigadier General Pat Foote and others understand the absurdity of keeping this law in place and have made public statements to that effect.
A 2006 Zogby poll, found that 45 percent of current Servicemembers already suspect they are serving with a homosexual in their unit, and of those, 23 percent are certain they are serving with a homosexual. These numbers indicate there is already a growing tacit acceptance among the ranks. Just looking around the American social landscape, it is highly unlikely that the current generation of 21st century enlistees will even appreciate what all the noise is about.
In September, 2009 the New York Times ran this story on DADT:
“WASHINGTON — In an unusual show of support for allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the armed forces, an article in an official military journal argues forcefully for repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, which requires homosexuals in the services to keep their sexual orientation secret.”
“The article, which appears in Joint Force Quarterly and was reviewed before publication by the office of Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says that “after a careful examination, there is no scientific evidence to support the claim that unit cohesion will be negatively affected if homosexuals serve openly.”
“The article, which was first reported Wednesday by The Boston Globe, also says the law has been costly — about 12,500 gay men and lesbians have been discharged from the service as a result of “don’t ask, don’t tell” since it took effect in 1993 — and argues that it undermines the unit cohesion it has sought to protect.”
“In an attempt to allow homosexual service members to serve quietly, a law was created that forces a compromise in integrity, conflicts with the American creed of ‘equality for all,’ places commanders in difficult moral dilemmas and is ultimately more damaging to the unit cohesion its stated purpose is to preserve,” Colonel Prakash writes.”
“The article says that in countries where bans on homosexuals’ serving openly in the military were lifted, including Australia, Canada and Britain, there was no “mass exodus” of heterosexual service members and no impact on military performance.”
We have the best trained, best equipped, and most professional force in the history of our country
Sadly, this one is the most ridiculous of McCain’s arguments. This collection is from the National Security Network website:
Our military is second to none, but eight years of misguided military strategy, negligence, and a reckless war in Iraq have left our ground forces facing shortfalls in both recruitment and readiness. The “transformation” strategy advocated by the Bush administration, namely Secretary Rumsfeld, held that future warfare would involve high tech fights between states; large ground forces were unnecessary because high-tech precision weapons would obviate the need for boots on the ground. As a result, not enough U.S. troops were initially sent to Iraq and Afghanistan to secure the countries and billions were spent on outdated weapons systems with little relevance to 21st century challenges. Every service is out of balance and ill-prepared to deal with the challenges of the 21st century. The war in Iraq, and the Administration’s failure to adequately prepare the military for it, has pushed our ground forces to the brink: recruitment and retention in crucial areas are down while low readiness and response levels are threatening our troop safety abroad, and impairing our National Guard at home. Additionally, the Bush administration’s failure to plan for the possibility of a drawn out conflict meant it failed to keep the promises made to those who have served. This misguided defense strategy has had severe implications for our military, and has left the U.S. dangerously exposed and strategically adrift.
Instead of reassessing America’s security needs when faced with a new global conflict, the Bush administration continued to over-invest in weapons meant for fighting a traditional adversary much like the extinct Soviet Union. This spending spree on advanced weaponry has done little for our troops, who battle today against small arms, suicide bombers, and internet-recruited terrorists. Today’s defense spending exceeds even levels at the heights of the Cold War. Currently, the U.S. spends more on defense than the rest of the world combined – we outspend China six to one – yet we don’t have the troops or equipment we need for the conflicts we are actually fighting. As the Center for American Progress noted, “The failure to shift budget priorities after 9/11 was not merely a case of inept management but was more a byproduct of the administration’s ideological and strategic vision of military transformation.” [NSN, 05/08, Issues in Science and Technology, Fall 2008]
Troops were sent to war without proper body armor and equipment. Despite the high levels of spending, basic needs went unmet. Veteran Paul Rieckhoff explains, “During Operation Iraqi Freedom, inadequate body armor was issued to thousands of troops. I know — I was one of them. I commanded thirty-seven infantrymen who rode into Baghdad in the spring of 2003 with outdated, inferior flak jackets. Later I learned that as many as 40,000 other Troops went to Iraq with the same substandard gear.”
Evidently, Sen. McCain was “out of the loop” on these developments, or on the electrocutions of servicemembers in showers in shoddily built barracks in Iraq.
Or these:
Joint Chiefs of Staff: Iraq hampers ability to respond to other threats. “Members of the Joint Chiefs have also told the president that the continued troop commitment to Iraq means that there is a significant level of risk should another crisis erupt elsewhere in the world. Any mission could be carried out successfully, the chiefs believe, but the operation would be slower, longer and costlier in lives and equipment than if the armed forces were not so strained. Members of the Joint Chiefs also acknowledge that the deployments to Iraq, with the emphasis on counterinsurgency warfare, have left the ground forces no time to train for the full range of missions required to defend American interests.” [NYT, 4/6/08]
Army Chief of Staff: Iraq is hurting the Army’s ability to sustain itself and plan for future contingencies. Gen. George Casey stated that “The cumulative effects of the last six-plus years at war have left our Army out of balance, consumed by the current fight and unable to do the things we know we need to do to properly sustain our all-volunteer force and restore our flexibility for an uncertain future.” [AP, 2/26/08]
Marine Corps training has suffered as a result of Iraq overstretch, endangering its expeditionary tradition. “We are not doing that kind of multi-capable training that we historically do in order to be that swing force and arguably the first to fight… We now have a generation of men and women who do not have a complete understanding of what expeditionary is… That people now believe that three square meals a day courtesy of KBR and a cot is expeditionary, that is just not true in most of the environments where we would expect to find ourselves in the early going of a contingency.” [Marine Corps Times, 2/4/08]
The National Guard will have limited capability to respond to natural or man-made disasters, one of its primary missions. Since 2001, more than 410,000 National Guard and Reservists or about 80 percent of the members of the Guard and Reserve have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, with an average of 18 months per mobilization. Of these, more than 84,000, or 20 percent, have been deployed more than once. [Center for American Progress, March 2007]
Walter Reed scandal exposed Bush administration’s inability to keep its promises to America’s vets. “The common perception of Walter Reed is of a surgical hospital that shines as the crown jewel of military medicine. But 5 1/2 years of sustained combat have transformed the venerable 113-acre institution into something else entirely — a holding ground for physically and psychologically damaged outpatients. Almost 700 of them — the majority soldiers, with some Marines — have been released from hospital beds but still need treatment or are awaiting bureaucratic decisions before being discharged or returned to active duty.” In Building 18 at Walter Reed, there was discovery of mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses, black mold, rotting walls and ceilings, among other health and sanitary issues. [Washington Post, 2/18/07]
Veterans’ Administration left unprepared for wave of injured vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, as the Bush administration failed to plan for the possibility of a drawn out conflict. The unexpected duration of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has placed tremendous strain on the Veterans’ Administration, as more and more veterans returned home needing care. The Bush administration did not anticipate protracted conflicts in either Afghanistan or Iraq, as projections within the Pentagon at the onset of the Iraq war believed that a significant drawdown of troops would happen in the first few months following the invasion. When each war began to take a greater toll the administration and the VA were caught off guard. “Another surge is putting pressure on the nation’s military. It is the surge of veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan returning home with physical and psychological wounds, and the question is: Are the nation’s veterans hospitals equipped and staffed to handle it?” [Buffalo News, 3/4/08]
Multiple deployments are taking a heavy toll on our troops. “More than a quarter of U.S. soldiers on their third or fourth tours in Iraq suffer mental health problems partly because troops are not getting enough time at home between deployments, the Army said. ‘Soldiers are not resetting entirely before they get back into theater,’ said Lt. Col. Paul Bliese, who led the Army’s Mental Health Advisory Team survey for 2007.” [Reuters, 3/06/08]
Now is not the time to abandon the policy
I beg to differ with Senator McCain on this point – Now is exactly the time to abandon this costly and demoralizing policy, if we care about our military more than we care about the sensibilities of ultra-conservatives and old-school Defense Department types. In the 21st century the old unquestioning support of anything related to Defense no longer holds; and the propaganda that taxpayers are expected to swallow so that they’ll continue to shell out for anything the military can dream up no longer holds us in thrall. It is definitely time to “get real” and I think that Sen. McCain has amply proven, with his statement last night, that he is not an especially reliable voice when it comes to 21st century military matters.
Technorati Tags: Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, Sen. John McCain, President Obama, repeal, executive order, State of the Union Address
