Top Military Official for the "Removal of Don't Ask Don't Tell" and Republicans are Upset with the Answer

Today Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen came before the Senate Arm Services Committee and passionately stated the need to remove "Don't Ask Don't Tell" from American law. In Adm. Mullen's testimony according to the New York Times he said, “No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens." This statement caught everyone off guard, but a bigger bombshell dropped by Mullen really angered some Republican Senators. Mullen continued, "allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do.”


Many Republicans led by Committee Chairman John McCain do not want to repeal "Don't Ask Don't Tell" They believe that the system is effective. According to the USA Today, Senator McCain argued, "At this moment of immense hardship for our armed services, we should not be seeking to overturn the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy." Other fears by Republican lawmakers are the possible expansion of these terms including transgender and hermaphrodites.

The view that everyone should be treated equally should go for everything. "Don't Ask Don't Tell" should be repealed. This law is doing two things that hurt America. First, it does not allow every able body person to serve his or her country. In a time of war, our armed services need as many people as we can get. By limiting, this number because some people do want gays and lesbians in the military hurts our armed forces. Second, it discriminates against a person's sexual orientation. We are a country that has fought against discrimination on all levels and for all ideas, but when it comes to equal rights for all sexual orientations, we have fallen behind other industrialized countries.

From AOL News in an article titled, "In Israeli Army, Gays Are 'No Big Deal'" the author Linda Gradstein shows in her article that being Gay in the Israeli Army is not a big deal and it is accepted. She also says that, "The right to be openly gay has been acknowledged in the Israeli military since 1993, and there is little evidence that policy has caused any problems." AOL also ran a story on the British system. In Theunis Bates story, "British Army Actively Recruits Gay Soldiers," that the British Government is recruiting openly gay men for military service. Theunis writes about how fears were not realized,

In fact, the biggest news about the change was that it resulted in no news. Academic studies published in peer-reviewed journals found that allowing openly gay troops to serve in the U.K. had no negative impact on cohesion, readiness, recruiting, morale, retention or any other measure of effectiveness.

Here are two well trained armies with independent studies that show that openly gay members of the armed forces do not pose a threat to the cohesion, readiness, recruiting, moral, retention or effectiveness. Britain and Israel are known for their tough militaries and take pride in their accomplishments. Anything to lessen their effectiveness would be changed.