LISA KEEN | Keen News Service
The Pentagon’s top four leaders stood their ground Thursday, Dec. 2 during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Defense Department’s report concerning “don’t ask don’t tell.” But there was considerable pushback from Republicans on the committee — and not just John McCain.
A lot of important ground was covered — both technically, concerning certification and benefits, and personally, with top military officials making clear that they believe repeal is the right thing to do and that now is the right time to do it.
Important, too, were questions by Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — Republicans who, until recently, were considered potential votes to at least allow the Senate to debate the repeal measure.
Collins spent her time for questions laying out arguments to rebut criticisms made of the Pentagon’s report by McCain and others; and Graham seemed to have backed off his complaint last week that the study failed to investigate “whether” DADT should be repealed.
What is the question?
One of the chief criticisms hurled at the report by McCain and several other Republicans was that the Pentagon did not ask a direct question of the 400,000 troops surveyed to determine whether they would like Congress to repeal DADT. Collins noted that the Pentagon does not ask troops whether they want to go to Iraq either and that, while troops were not asked about DADT repeal directly, their thinking was certainly conveyed by their responses to less direct questions.
The insistence, by McCain and others, that troops should have been polled on whether to keep DADT elicited the strongest rebuke from the military leaders themselves. Both Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen repeatedly rejected the idea as “dangerous.”
Gates said that conducting a “referendum” on a matter of military policy “is a very dangerous path.” Mullen agreed, saying it would be an “incredibly bad precedent to essentially vote on a policy.”
McCain persisted, saying it was “not voting” on a policy, it was “asking their views.” He was not alone. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., said he, too, felt the Pentagon should have asked a direct question.
Both McCain and Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., seemed to flirt with the use of some inflammatory tactics during the hearing. McCain twice raised the issue of who was responsible for the current public release of classified documents by a website called Wikileaks — an act that is considered to be one of the most damaging breaches in intelligence confidentiality in American history. It has been widely reported that the 22-year-old Army private first-class who has been arrested for enabling the leaks, Bradley Manning, has identified himself as gay.
Chambliss noted that Admiral Mullen, in his opening statement both Thursday and at a previous hearing in February, indicated he had served alongside gay people and had gay people under his command. Chambliss asked questions to suggest that Mullen had failed to seek the discharge of these gay servicemembers as required by existing military policy at the time. (Mullen, however, noted that military law and policy has changed during the course of his career in the service and that, in fact, “every single one” of the gays he knew of were discharged. “I did this, and I saw this,” said Mullen.)
What is the difference?
There was considerable discussion of how the repeal of DADT might mirror the changes that took place in the late 1940s and 1950s after then President Harry S. Truman signed an executive order requiring integration and again in the 1960s when Congress repealed a two-percent cap on the number of women who could serve.
“Social changes in the military have not been particularly easy,” said Gates. He said that “serious racial problems” plagued the military “at least through” the Vietnam War years and that women in the military still face the very real problem with sexual assaults.
McCain pointed out that, in 1993, General Colin Powell had opposed gays in the military and rebuffed attempts to compare discrimination based on race and that based on sexual orientation.
Jeh Johnson, the co-chair of the Pentagon study group, said he would agree that “issues of race and sexual orientation are fundamentally different.” But he said that, in his study of integration issues for the DADT report, he found that some of the nation’s greatest heroes in World War II “predicted negative consequences for unit cohesion if there was racial integration” of the troops.
Johnson, who is African-American, also noted that surveys of 3,000 to 4,000 troops in the 1940s found that opposition to racial integration ran as high as 80 percent — and that was at a time when there were only about 700,000 black soldiers in a force of 8 million troops. It was also a time, said Johnson, when integration was not accepted by society at large.
“But we did it. It took some time. It was not without incident,” said Johnson, “but we did it and, I think the chairman said, the military was stronger as a result.”
In fact, Johnson said the opposition to racial integration then was “much more intense than the opposition to gays serving openly today in the military.”
What are the bottom lines?
Thursday’s hearing came across as a vigorous debate between Republicans on the Committee, most of whom seem to oppose repeal, and Democrats and the Defense Department’s top brass, who appear to support it. But it took place against the backdrop of a political gaming of the Senate’s parliamentary procedures. All 42 Republicans in the Senate signed onto a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday saying they would not agree to vote on “any legislative item until the Senate has acted to fund the government and we have prevented the tax increase.” Although the language of “fund the government” might provide some wiggle room for the defense authorization bill (because it authorizes the expenditure of funds for the government), the letter is being widely characterized as an obstacle to consideration of DADT repeal, which is contained inside the defense authorization bill.
Maine Republican Collins’ questions Thursday suggest she is still for repealing DADT — a position she took in the Committee’s original vote on the defense authorization bill in September. Unless she and a few other Republicans provide Democrats with the votes they need to reach 60 — to allow the defense authorization bill to the floor— Thursday’s debate and debate that will take place during Day Two of the hearing, Friday, are moot.
Collins has been ridiculed by a number of pundits in recent days for saying she didn’t know how to vote on another contentious piece of legislation — the START treaty — and that she would appreciate getting some direction from two former Republican presidents — the two Bushes. Such negative publicity may have inspired Collins to ask the pro-repeal oriented questions she asked at Thursday’s hearings.
The hope of convincing some Republicans to wiggle themselves around the Republican drop dead letter could well have been behind Secretary Gates’ repeated assurances Thursday that he would not sign the necessary document to “certify” the troops are ready to implement repeal until “everything has been done” to ensure the troops are ready and that the chiefs of each of the service branches “are comfortable” that any risks to combat readiness had been “mitigated if not eliminated.”
Neither Gates nor Mullen suggested how long it might take to certify such readiness after Congress votes to repeal the law. But both also sought to impress upon the Committee another issue with regard to timing: The courts.
“Whatever risk there may be to repeal of this law, it is greatly mitigated by the thorough implementation plan included in this study, the time to carry out that plan, and effective, inspirational leadership,” said Mullen in his opening statement.
“Now, let me tell you what I believe,” continued Mullen. “I believe our troops and their families are ready for this. Most of them believe they serve, or have served, alongside gays and lesbians, and knowing matters a lot….
“I believe now is the time to act. I worry that unpredictable actions in the court could strike down the law at any time, precluding the orderly implementation plan we believe is necessary to mitigate risk,” said Mullen. “I also have no expectation that challenges to our national security are going to diminish in the near future, such that a more convenient time will appear.”
Copyright ©2010 Keen News Service. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
John McCain is like every other Republican. He lied when he said he would go by what the joint chiefs said so gays would vote for him and as you see now he isn’t listening to them at all. He is a hate monger bigot.
I have a bone to pick with you, Senator John McCain. You say you are a Christian. I understand you are opposed to repealing DADT. Well, where are your references you site from the Christian Bible to support your argument? Do not hide behind your Senate table. DON’T ASK? Well, I am asking you Senator John McCain, who says you are a Christian. Quote your scripture references to defend your promise not to vote for the repeal of DADT. DON”T TELL me your opinions. TELL ME your references. A Christian, Kenny Merriken
I believe it is foolhardy to expect anything but bad from McCain, including the brown stains in his Depends. This man is a disgrace in every sense of the word… militarily, socially, politically, religiously, ad nauseum. Definitely a POW who should have been left behind. Besides that, he isn’t even a good pilot!
Somebody should tell McCain that it’s not 1950 anymore.
Yeah, the joint chiefs are split so he’s going with part of what they said. Hate is on both sides, just look at the comments here.
Here ya go Kenny:
What Does God Think Of Sodomy? (1) It is an abomination (Le 18:22). (2) It bore the death penalty in the O.T. dispensation (Le 20:13; Ro 1:32). (3) It defiles the land (Le 18:25). (4) It is the product of a morally reprobate mind (Ro 1:26-28). (5) It is worthy of the judgment of eternal fire (Jude 1:7). (6) It can be forgiven and cleansed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God (1Co 6:9-11).
Is Sodomy A Greater Sin? While it is true that there are many sins other than homosexuality and all sin is wicked before God, and while it is true that any sin can be forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ, the Bible does not say that all sin is the same in its effect in this world. God did not pour our fire and brimstone upon Sodom because of its jealousy or covetousness or lack of hospitality. It was judged specifically because of its homosexuality (Jude 1:7). Though all moral sins are evil in God’s eye, homosexuality is especially corrupt because it is a sin against nature itself. It destroys the very fabric of society, which is the family as defined biblically-a man and a woman united in holy matrimony rearing children to fear God and to be productive citizens. Homosexuality is to “change the natural use into that which is against nature” (Ro 1:26).
DISCRIMINATION IS WRONG, SHAMEFUL, IMMORAL, AND UNGODLY.by Bob Olivieri on Monday, October 18, 2010 at 10:45pm Dear President Obama, Secretary Gates, Military Commanders, and all Military Personnel of the United States Armed Forces: Thank you for your service. You are lucky that I or anybody else can thank you because you have not had immoral obstacles placed in front of you because you happened to be born with a heterosexual orientation. Other people, about 10% of the population happen to be born with a different orientation. What right does any POLITICAL POWER have to EXCLUDE ANYBODY because of religious discrimination? That’s what it is when you get down to the basic argument. Nobody has the right to discriminate, It is against the law of our land. I ask all to remember the horrors and death of the Holocaust and the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King where many people were hurt and died because of being different. Hate caused both these tragedies in American History and it still goes on today on a smaller scale, unfortunately. I ask this discriminatory Policy put into place because of hate BE REPEALED IMMEDIATELY. Our children are fighting on the ground now as you read this and dying. Can you tell which dead ones are heterosexual or gay? They are ALL working very hard and dangerously serving to keep us safe in America. It is immoral, UNGODLY, and against the Constitution of the United States to deny anyone equal treatment because of their religious views. In closing, I would like to state that GAY SOLDIERS ARE JUST AS TOUGH AS STRAIGHT SOLDIERS and it is time to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell just as many other countries are very proud having both their Gay and Straight Military Personnel serving Honorably. It is now time for the United States Military to MAN UP and do what is right, repeal that discriminatory and shameful policy NOW please. One of the CORE Values in the US Military is RESPECT and I ask President Obama and the Commanders of our Military to practice now what you are suppose to be instilling into ALL our wonderful people IN THE Armed Forces, RESPECT.I thank all of you and support you and DEMAND as a citizen of the United States, follow the Law and Abide by the US Constitution and follow the Law without religious pressure.
Sincerely,
Robert Olivieri
Thank you, Bob O.!!
Dennis, I do not have a bone to pick with you. I have a bone to pick with Senator John McCain. Senator John McCain, criticizes the lifting of DADT. But, unlike you, he avoids using scripture to support his criticism of the lifting of DADT. Without the scripture, does Senator John McCarin have a leg to stand on in his criticism of Gay rights? If so I would like to know what it is. I support your use of scripture to give reasoning concerning DADT. I am appalled at Senator John McCain’s reasoning. He claims to be a Christian but does not use the Bible his Christianity is based on. Look at my youtube.com video titled, “Messiah loves homosexuals” to see where I am coming from.
John McCain should go out to pasture. He’s against everything and wants it his way with his crowney’s. When they all start getting the church involved nothing works. What happened to seperation of church and state? Maybe he has something to hide sexually.
Richard Crooks
You are welcome Dakotahgeo. 🙂