Don't Bother - US military flawed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy (raging mad in heartland)

Boston Globe ^ | editorial

[Former Military Chick]

The US military has always been sabotaging itself with its flawed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on gay service personnel and now a government study shows exactly how much.

The military has discharged 9,488 soldiers for being gay, lesbian, or bisexual since the policy went into effect in 1993. It has had to spend at least $200 million to recruit and train their replacementsmany in the key areas of intelligence, linguistics, interrogations, and code-breaking. The statistics come from a new Government Accountability Office report initiated by US Representative Martin Meehan of Lowell, who was joined by 19 other lawmakers in requesting the report.

In this time of terrorism, budget tightening, and thinned ranks when retired service people are being pressured to reenlist the military needs all the talent it can recruit. It especially needs foreign-language specialists, but more than 300 have been let go, according to the report, and 54 of those spoke Arabic. Other languages included Farsi and Korean, Chinese, Serbo-Croation, and Vietnamese.

The study noted that 757 of the 9,488 soldiers discharged under the policy held what the military called "critical occupations," encompassing not only linguists and intelligence experts but air traffic controllers, mechanics, missile operators, flight engineers, and technical analysts.

The report, which looked at the Marines, Air Force, Navy, and Army, indicated that costs could be higher than estimated because they did not include National Guard, Reserves, or Coast Guard forces.

- - -

Meehan, a senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, has long urged repeal of the ''Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law. He will file a bill next week to take the counterproductive statute off the books.

[Former Military Chick]

This just seems like a recycled article now in the form of an op-ed piece. Yes, we need folks in areas but we have regulations and well they need to be enforced.

I am getting so tired of this recycled news item. That somehow the military would be better with those who are of differing sexual preference. It is about far more important issues than the PC garbage the left spews and yes I am frankly tired of it and well I have no doubt we will have excellent folks join the military that will adhere to the regs of the US Military.

[monkeywrench]

"The study noted that 757 of the 9,488 soldiers discharged under the policy held what the military called "critical occupations," encompassing not only linguists and intelligence experts but air traffic controllers, mechanics, missile operators, flight engineers, and technical analysts."

The planners create a situation they know won't fly, then when called on to do something about it, all one hears is 'it's too expensive', or 'we can't, it's too late, now', or 'that's intolerant'. It's those planners that really need to go.

[TWohlford]

Oh jeez, you're right... this article has been around for at least 6 weeks! Even the wor

From the top... 1.5 million US citizens in uniform at any time, with another 875,000 civilians. The number of people who've gone thru the military since 1993 are obvious in the multi-millions. The percentages of those "let go" for this reason... well, my calculator doesn't have enough zeros on the percentages.

Of the 54 who spoke Arabic... there are (at last count) 1.2 million US residents who are of Arab ancestry, many of whom are first generatation and/or speak Arabic.

Jeez. The first casulty of activism is almost always truth.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Announcer: And now, the men of the Second Armored Division with their famous close order swanning about.

Sergeant: Squad... Camp it up!

Soldiers: Oooooh get her! Whoops, I've got your number ducky, you couldn't afford me dear, two three. I'll scratch your eyes out! Don't come the Brigadier bitch with us dear, we all know where you've been, you military fairy. Two, three, one, two, three, four, five, six. Whoops! Don't look now girls, the man has just minced in with that dolly colour Sergeant, two three. OOOOOOOOOOOH!

-- Monty Python's Flying Circus

[RobbyS]

A bit like lowering standards to allow the enlistment of guys who like to smoke pot. Yeah, there are guys--like the one who recently published in Esquire who squeak past drug tests into the army and while there do good work. But does the Army have to keep the ones who get caught while in the service? As regards the specialties which are in short supply: Is there any reason that think that gays as a group are much more apt to qualify in these areas than straights? Are they suggesting that the Army should consider them like the NBA does black students and actively recruit them?

[the invisib1e hand]

life was a lot easier when they were "in the closet" and there was a social taboo.

[End Times Sentinel]

The study noted that 757 of the 9,488 soldiers discharged under the policy held what the military called "critical occupations," encompassing not only linguists and intelligence experts but air traffic controllers, mechanics, missile operators, flight engineers, and technical analysts.

 

I dunno, maybe I'm missing something because I didn't bother to read the entire article, but this seems like a pretty easy fix, and oddly, I guess I'm on the side of the Globe on this one.

 

Just scrap Don't Ask Don't Tell.  If someone is found as being a sodomite in the military, you throw them in the brig for 20 years and then garnish their wages for the rest of their lives until they've paid back what the military paid for their training and the training of their replacement.

 

Considering the white hot hatred the left has for faggots, as displayed in the Jeff Gannon incident, it sounds like a win-win to me.  Let's build bridges with the bones of the faggots, eh lefties?

Owl_Eagle

"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in.  I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"

-Hillary Clinton

(Yes, she really said that

Peggy Noonan

The Case Against Hillary Clinton, pg 55)

 

[alice_in_bubbaland]

BTW- A soldier, a nice kid and trained medic, who was stationed at Okinawa, Japan (sp?) was murdered a couple of weeks ago. Rumor has it that he was killed because he was gay. He was a classmate of my daughter. I've met his Mom, nice people! Very sad, very sad indeed....

[marron]

I'm sure a lot of people have been discharged for a lot of reasons.

We aren't trying to build the largest military in the world, we are building the most effective. What type of person constitutes "most effective" is a military decision. There are no doubt some perfectly fine people who are not military material, who can and will find other ways to make themselves useful.

Military service is a duty but it is not a right.

[Drew68]

The military has discharged 9,488 soldiers for being gay, lesbian, or bisexual since the policy went into effect in 1993.

I wonder how many of these people claimed to be gay just to get out of the military? One downside to "don't ask don't tell" is that it can be played as a "get out of the military free" card.

Many people enlist only to discover shortly thereafter that the military might not have been a good decision for them. Seems to me that some people might use this as a way to get out with an administrative discharge.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

"Shower and a foxhole after dinner tonight, Chad...?"

"There are no lights at the end of this tunnel, Trevor..."

[SweetCaroline]

-- Monty Python's Flying Circus

Well it's a good thing you let some of us who never saw Monty Python's Flying Circus know that's what that rant was all about.

I thought we had another FREEPER who got off their meds.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Not a "rant": just a classic Monty Python skit. :)

[rbg81]

Standards have a price, but they are usually worth it. I definitely believe its true in this case. If you let flaming gays into the military, then morale, unit cohesion, and retention will suffer well beyond any "gain". This is especially true with Southern Christians, who make up the backbone of the military.

[SweetCaroline]

....like I said, when I read it I thought this poor freeper has forgotten his meds. Never saw Monty Python skit. I was pleased to be wrong :)

[Captain Rhino]

>>The military has discharged 9,488 soldiers for being gay, lesbian, or bisexual since the policy went into effect in 1993. It has had to spend at least $200 million to recruit and train their replacementsmany in the key areas of intelligence, linguistics, interrogations, and code-breaking.<<

Lets see...lie about or conceal your sexuality to get in, get discovered through your own misconduct, get processed and discharged in accordance with regulations laid down before the enlistment took place. I just hope that the military is trying to get them to repay at least some of the cost of their salary and the training they received while they were perpetrating their fraud on the government.

This cost could have been completely avoided if the offenders hadn't disregarded the law in the first place.

So, once again, we discover it is all Bush's fault.

[Criminal Number 18F]

There are two facts you need to keep in mind about this, before you lose it, m'dear.

1. No member of the Boston Globe editorial board, or person who makes a decision on the Globe's editorial policy or content, has ever served in the military. How could they? They hate us.

2. Every person who makes significant day-to-day decisions about what goes on that editorial page is homosexual. So they have a dog in this fight -- even if it is a poodle.

I, too, used to wonder where they got so many queer ideas. Seems they come by them honestly.

A couple of relevant links:

• http://www.cathfam.org/Hitems/GayPropaganda.html

• http://www.massnews.com/2002_editions/11_Nov/110802_mn_globe_editors_gay.shtml

• http://www.mijohn.com/resume.htm (one of the editorial staff, former president of some gay journalists association)

Ironically, the Globe won a Pulitzer in 2003 for "outing" gay priests... including Fr. Paul Shanley, whose "ministry to gay and questioning youth" Globe writers had been promoting for years.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[Virginia Queen]

Well, I guess we just need to revert to the old system and put them all back into the closet so we can cut down on discharges.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

so we can cut down on discharges

Ewwwwwwwwwwww. :)

[rpgdfmx]

My condolences to your friends on the loss of their son. No one deserves to be murdered, and certainly no one has the right to decide who is, and who is not, deserving of simple human decency. No parent should lose a child this way.

I live out of the U.S., and come to this site to see what the issues are at home. Gays in the military is a non-issue everywhere except the U.S. I suspect tragedies like your friends' come as much from official non-acceptance as anything else.

18-year olds go into the military not having experienced much of life. Discovering their sexual orientation is part of it. Whether we like it or not, gay kids are going to serve... if the kid wasn't gay, it shouldn't have been an issue either.

There is no way anyone can undo what happened. But, there are plenty of kind and decent human beings out there in "bubba-land" to help the family through their tragedy.