Hope And Change: Obama Administration Won’t Be Touching “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” Policy
He campaigned on hope and change. To date, Americans aren’t getting a lot of either.
WASHINGTON – Don’t expect any change soon to the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy about gays in the military.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates says both he and President Barack Obama have “a lot on our plates right now.” As Gates puts it, “let’s push that one down the road a little bit.”
Right. Because making a decision on that would require some actual leadership from the President on a tough, divisive issue. And we all know Obama favors form over substance. Pretty speeches, not a lot of meaning.
For the record, I think we should have ended “don’t ask, don’t tell” a long time ago. The military has a number of prudent regulations on the books pertaining to inappropriate romantic fraternization between military members. And given that the younger generation of troops now making up our military ranks is a lot more tolerant of gays than older generations were the argument pertaining to dissent and turmoil in the ranks is becoming less and less convincing.
Gays exist. Some of them want to serve our country in the military. Why not let ‘em do so in an open fashion so that they need not fear repurcussions for acting in a non-government-approved way in their personal lives?
