Today was Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell day on Capitol Hill. With Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Admiral Mullen offered his personal view thusly:
“Mr. Chairman, speaking for myself and myself only, it is my personal belief that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do. 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. For me, personally, it comes down to integrity — theirs as individuals and ours as an institution.”
Robert Gates announced that there would be a investigative study launched that should conclude by the end of the year as to how to go about repeal with implementation starting shortly thereafter and probably taking another year to complete. There was also talk of enacting stop-loss measures to prevent further discharges under DADT, such as not investigating people who are outed by third parties.
Of course there was the typical backlash. AMERICAblog caught John McCain’s flip-flop from a statement in 2006 about how we should listen when military leaders say it’s time for repeal to his flip-out today about how a thousand retired admirals and generals had signed a petition against change. Guess he’s more interested in the opinions of retired military leaders who agree with him than what the people who actually run the military think.
Watch Admiral Mullen’s full statement after the jump.
No comments:
Post a Comment