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July 28, 2006
Don't Ask, Don't Tell... Don't Protect Our National Security
I've often opined about how I believe that religious conservatives and their dogmatic, theocratic agenda is the greatest threat we face to what America is supposed to stand for. But that religiously dogmatic agenda is also a direct threat to your personal safety and to national security, and you ought to see it for what it is. To wit:
The United States military prohibits openly gay citizens from serving in the defense of our country. The sole reason for this is extremist Christian religious dogma. Despite the fact that more than two dozen nations -- including some of America's closest military allies, like the United Kingdom, Israel, Germany, Poland, Canada, and Australia -- allow openly gay citizens to serve and have yet to have crippling disciplinary problems (not to mention fire or brimstone falling upon them), the US Taliban fall back on their same tried and true distortion and fearmongering in order to cloud the issue and spread irrational fear. Sadly, the US Taliban have puppets in this White House who are perfectly happy to be led around by their noses, catering to every whim and twitch of the religious right in this country... and so gays are still kicked out of the military for... being gay.
Which is a stupid and short-sighted policy anyway... but when you consider the military situation we're in right now -- both in Iraq and in fighting al Qaida -- it's a downright criminal policy. See, the United States desperately needs people who can speak, understand and translate various dialects of Arabic. Given that al Qaida is out there still (thank you, George W Bush!), it is a matter of national security that we are able to intercept and understand as much as we can about their plans. That's a tall order right now, because there is an acute shortage of qualified Arabic translators. Many candidates are declined because of security concerns (maybe their families emigrated from say, Syria, or they have a few too many friends in Saudi Arabia for the US government's liking, perhaps), and there is simply not enough supply to meet the demand.
You'd think that this dire need -- and the perpetual threat posed to our nation by al Qaida -- would override the US Taliban's irrational and pathetic smear & fear campaign, and that any US citizen who could speak Arabic and serve honorably would be welcome to serve. You'd think wrong, though. Because the Pentagon and the Bush White House would still rather kiss the asses of their religious conservative masters, and would rather keep the US military pure enough for their religiously bigoted ideology, than actually protecting our national security as best they can.
Case in point: Bleu Copas, a decorated soldier and Arabic language specialist (you know, one of those guys we desperately need?) has been kicked out of the Army for being gay.
An eight-month Army investigation culminated in Copas’ honorable discharge on Jan. 30 — less than four years after he enlisted, he said, out of a post-Sept. 11 sense of duty to his country... More than 11,000 service members have been dismissed under the [don't ask, don't tell] policy, including 726 last year — an 11 percent jump from 2004 and the first increase since 2001. the GAO also noted that nearly 800 dismissed gay or lesbian service members had critical abilities, including 300 with important language skills. Fifty-five were proficient in Arabic, including Copas, a graduate of the Defense Language Institute in California.
Discharging and replacing them has cost the Pentagon nearly $369 million, according to the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Your national security at direct risk. $369 million of your money. All so that the hyper-conservative Christian movement can rest easy knowing our military has maintained ideological purity to their satisfaction. The next time one of those social conservative weenies tries to yap about how liberals or Democrats aren't patriotic, they ought to be 1) slugged in the mouth; and 2) asked why it is that they support the forced removal of service members with the skills we desperately need the most.
Oh - and one more thing... I served in the US military (Naval Reserves, 1991-1995). I have been there. I know the culture, I know the routine, I know the camaraderie and I know the espirit de corps that exists in the military. And I wholeheartedly support allowing gays to serve openly. It won't impact morale or discipline any more than any other issue in the barracks. And anyone whining about wanton, hedonistic, immoral sex that could occur in the military as a result of letting "them" in... I submit to you that they've never seen heterosexual servicemen and women who are just getting out of basic, or who are on shore leave, or who are stationed somewhere and are out for a night on the town off base. The military is full of human beings -- young ones at that, for the most part. Human beings have sex. Shut up, deal with it, and get over it... because your ideological purity is directly putting me at risk.
Comments
Hear, hear. Even the late Barry Goldwater -- founder of the Arizona National Guard, former Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and never one accused of being a moderate in the defense of liberty, whatever else we may have thought about him -- said: "You don't have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight."
Posted by: Derek at July 29, 2006 10:51 AM
