When our own Secretary of Defense starts to play the drama queen, you have to start wondering just what’s motivating him. Aaron Belkin of the Palm Center rightfully calls out Gates:
Palm Center Director Aaron Belkin had this reaction:
“Today, Defense Secretary Robert Gates declared that a federal court’s injunction of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ would have ‘enormous consequences for our troops.’ Secretary Gates added that permitting gay and lesbian troops to serve openly ‘is an action that requires careful preparation and a lot of training.’
“With all due respect, Mister Secretary, implementing repeal of DADT is not difficult, and you should stop saying that it is. Indeed, there were no reports of enormous consequences for the troops yesterday after the ban was suspended. There were no reports of problems today.
As you well know, gays and lesbians are serving honorably and openly today alongside their straight peers. For this reason, and as the RAND Corporation found in 1993, the lifting of a gay ban is not difficult if leaders insist that troops work together. A protracted process involving ‘a lot of training’ is not needed.”
It’s pretty clear the Secretary of Defense holds the troops in low esteem. He keeps warning about how dire it will be to give them a simple order. Funny, I always figured we had the best military in the world, yet all those other countries, including Britain and Israel, have let the gays serve without a problem. Yet when it comes to the US military, Secretary Gates would like us to think all hell would break loose. I don’t know about you, but I think more highly of our military than that. Too bad our own Secretary of Defense doesn’t.
