Air Force Chief speaks as though DADT’s repeal is a foregone conclusion

Timothy Kincaid

February 19th, 2010

Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley spoke yesterday to the Air Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium and Technology Exposition. He addressed the issue of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and appears to have spoken as though its repeal is a foregone conclusion.

The Air Force website and the Air Force Times have a slightly different report and a transcript of the speech is not available so I am gleaning what I can.

Air Force Times:

“The president as commander in chief has answered the question of whether this legislative change will be pursued, and the answer is ‘yes,\'” Donley told the several hundred airmen who came to hear him speak. “We know this will be an issue of interest to all airmen and is certain to generate much discussion.”

Donley warned the audience that the Air Force cannot be “pulled into the political debate” and that it should “add light and not heat to the discussion.”

Beyond legal issues, Donley said, the Air Force will advise the Pentagon on how repeal of the law could affect unit cohesion and military readiness.

“Congress will be listening to what the military has to say,” he said.

Air Force website:

“A working group chaired by the DOD general counsel will examine all aspects of properly implementing a repeal to the current law with recommendations in areas such as housing, benefits and other policies to be completed by the end of this calendar year,” Secretary Donley said. “For the services and our Air Force, this is a test of whether we can have a professional and dispassionate conversation, develop the facts related to implementation, and appropriately advise the president and Congress without being involved in the political debate that surrounds this issue.”

The secretary noted the Air Force will endeavor to “add light, not heat, to this debate.”

It appears to me that Donley will not be giving any testimony that contradicts the intentions of the President and the Joint Chiefs Chairman to repeal the policy. The Air Force, it seems, will limit its involvement to discussions about implementation.

But in the meanwhile, expulsions will continue to be processed.

“We are continuing to process those cases,” Donley replied when asked whether the service would wait to act until the Defense Department finishes its assessment, which should be in 45 days.

Ben in Oakland

February 20th, 2010

I sent this to the Chronicle the other day. since they didn’t publish it, here goes.

Editor:

According to press releases, our military, the best in the world, wants to conduct more studies on repealing Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell, and institute it incrementally. Full repeal “is probably years away”. They have had seventeen years to study it. We know that gay and lesbian soldiers are already serving among their heterosexual compatriots, often with the full knowledge of their units and commanders. If anyone cares, they are keeping quiet about it. They have the experience of most of our allies– Canada, Britain, and Israel, among many others– that openly gay and lesbian soldiers serve well alongside heterosexual soldiers, posing no threat to morale or discipline. Indeed, our own soldiers are serving next to those foreign troops in combat situations, without incident. What else needs to be studied?

Even though the public, the President, and Adm. Mullen and Colin Powell all support repeal, the military claims that there are political and strategic necessities that must be observed. Maybe, but they also say this: they want to avoid a theoretical backlash, including possible violence, even though they believe that only a minority would protest, and this could be managed within standard discipline.

Who exactly is the threat to morale, discipline, order, and unit cohesion? Whom do we want defending our country? The gay and lesbian soldiers that want to serve their country honorably, without the constant threat of being thrown out, as they have done even under DADT? Or the soldiers who are so homophobic and immature that they would ignore discipline, trash unit cohesion, and commit violence against their fellow soldiers? They get to stay, and the gay soldiers must go? Does this make any sense?

This is the true and ugly face of Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell: prejudice. Exactly the same arguments about unit cohesion, with as much basis in “fact”, were used against integrating the military 60 years ago. This whole debate around repeal underlines that this has never been about the ability of gay people to serve well and honorably, let alone the canards about morale and discipline. It is about the prejudice of some heterosexuals, given a thin veneer of respectability by imaginary concerns about “unit cohesion”, and given authority by people who should– and do– know better.

Gay and lesbian soldiers are already serving alongside heterosexuals. Let them do so openly, and now. I’m sure the best military in the world can handle it.

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