Speaking to reporters today, soon-to-exit Defense Secretary Robert Gates outlined — for the first time since the president authorized the Pentagon to kill Don’t Ask Don’t Tell — just how the military is going to let gays start serving openly. Under his watch, the armed services will be “overhauling applicable military personnel policy and benefits, providing training for top brass and military chaplains [“as expeditiously as we can”], and then formally instructing the nation’s 2.2 million troops on the ban’s repeal.” And while Gates didn’t reveal it, and Julian Assange has yet to leak the details, we heard about Gates’ super-secret fourth tactic: group showers.
Devon
I’ll just wait for them to certify that repeal…
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Justin
@Help us End DADT: That’s a great insurance policy. I’m sending a check in today. Thanks.
reason
Gates life in public service has been exemplary, and one of the few that I truly admire. He always manages to stay above the fray, the politics, and the personal getting the job done to the best of his ability. He has made several sacrifices to serve the country and I am grateful.
Andy
@reason: He’s a war criminal and played a role in Iran Contra.
[email protected]
@Andy: AMEN!!!
But don’t try to tell that to the ridiculously named “Reason”—Queerty’s Resident Obamabot [praising Gates is the same as praising Obama because he betrayed not just his promises to personally start fighting to pass the REAL repeal bill, the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, the moment he took office but his responsibilities as Commander-in-Chief by surrendering total control of DADT to Gates in exchange for the Repug Right Winger staying on as SECDEF].
Despite having escaped prosecution during the early 1990’s Iran-Contra investigation for his actions while at the CIA, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates remains an unconvicted fraud [see how this applies to DADT below], and documented, if unconvicted liar:
“As a manager of intelligence analysis [at the CIA during the Reagan Reich]…Gates, according to former intelligence officers, DEMANDED THAT HIS STAFF COMPLY AND ENCOURAGED REPORTING THAT SOME INSISTED WAS BLATANTLY SLANTED….” – “Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA,” John Prados.
“Harold P. Ford, an honored veteran of the C.I.A. and a reluctant witness, said he felt obligated to testify that Mr. Gates had ‘SKEWED INTELLIGENCE’.” – “The New York Times,” October 04, 1991, during hearings on whether to confirm Gates as Director of the CIA. The Senate chose to ignore such claims even though, his first nomination, in 1987, was withdrawn after “evasive answers about his role in the Iran-contra affair.”
But the charges continued after he became CIA Director, and was immediately up to his old tricks: “[Mr. Gates’] WITHHOLDING information or DISTORTING it is not legitimate advocacy.” – “The New York Times,” April 02, 1992.
[email protected]
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As for Gates’ NONSENSE about what still has to be done before the scary, dangerous gays can ACTUALLY be let out of their military closets:
1. “finalize changes in regulations, policies, get clearer definition on benefits”
Why “changes” plural? It may be referenced in an unknown number of documents but only ONE thing needs to change initially: homosexuality/homosexual acts are no longer a grounds for discharge [Article 125, the “sodomy statute” is already virtually never charged except to amplify other legitimate charges such as sex with a subordinate, on base, etc.]. And there is NO reason to wait to implement that until after “benefits” are figured out.
According to yesterday’s “Washington Blade,” emphasis mine:
“Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, said implementation of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal shouldn’t be a long process because the Pentagon ALREADY ESTABLISHED A POLICY TO ALLOW GAYS TO SERVE OPENLY in the military when a California federal court in October issued an injunction that temporarily enjoined enforcement of the law.
“Although they haven’t acknowledged this in public, THE REPLACEMENT REGULATIONS HAVE ALREADY BEEN WRITTEN, and so the Pentagon could easily repeal the ban TODAY if there was the political will,” Belkin said.
…Belkin said he suspects opposition to repeal from some military service chiefs — Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz — could slow the process for certification. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead has said he supports repeal.
“Casey in particular is leaving soon and doesn’t want to be known as the Army chief of staff who let gays in on his watch,” Belkin said. “The foot-dragging is NOT about some sincere or legitimate sense that the troops need to be trained on how to deal with gays; it’s because they don’t want to be around when the policy happens.”
When Clinton ordered “Don’t Ask” in January 1993, recruiters didn’t stop enlisting people simply because their forms included a question about homosexuality. They simply took pencils/pens and marked out that question.
In March of last year, when Gates himself announced the so-called “humane” changes to DADT implementation, including banning the use of information shared with a chaplain being used to discharge someone gay, he said they took effect IMMEDIATELY, and gave personnel only 30 DAYS to update their paperwork.
2. “prepared the training materials” about WHAT? As DADT expert Nathaniel Frank has said, “This is not rocket science.”
3. “train the troops”??? Again, about WHAT. They ALREADY are taught that harassment of anyone perceived to be gay is a No-No.
Per the Palm Center’s most recent report:
“Any claim that [implementation cannot happen] until after the completion of exhaustive training is inconsistent with DoD history and not based on military necessity. Whatever preparations are ultimately deemed necessary, the Pentagon ought to be able to pull them off faster than it did the implementation of DADT in 1994, which took approximately 40 days. Case studies demonstrate that training can take place quickly, even in combat zones, and that policies are generally implemented BEFORE OR CONCURRENT WITH training. The Pentagon’s request for up to a year to train the troops prior to the repeal of DADT is unprecedented. Training is not a prerequisite…to claim otherwise is a vote of no confidence in members of the armed forces, is not supported empirically, and is suspiciously dilatory. Training, like the formal publication of instructions, can occur (and has occurred) ex post facto.”
Despite the results of his own study showing that the majority of troops wouldn’t be bothered by open service PERIOD [NOT only AFTER “training”] Gates is still inexplicably acting as if the sky would fall, that gays are some kind of eight-eyed alien that the delicate forces need prepared for.
The man’s a homophobic fraud who only finally changed his game plan of sitting silently by while the clock ran out on the legislation he’d forced into the Lame Duck session after leaks [that the Pentagon tried to track down and punish] proved his “poison pill”—the so-called “study”—had backfired on him AND he suddenly feared that the courts would override him and force an immediate, unequivocal end to the ban [the Obama DOJ is STILL trying to kill that court order. WHY?].
Cam
Please remember also, the White House stripped out any language that forbids discrimination from the repeal.
I’m not sure how that is going to work out…..so…..you’re gay, so you can serve openly, um, but you’re gay so, you’re fired.
DR
Did anyone actually read the WaPo article???
There have to be changes made to the UCMJ (a big step in many ways since it’s so outdated it’s sad), personnel policy has to be changed to address what obligations the military does and does not have regarding benefits, recognition of marriages, etc, and, thanks to all the cowardly lions who ran to the press and had Captain Honors relieved of comant right before a major deployment because having him informally addressed wasn’t sufficient, training has to be done to make sure that the brass knows how thin-skinned and delicate *some* GLB soldiers can be.
Daez
@DR: Oh come on, you don’t think anyone here is going to listen to actual logic do you. They all live in friendly land where mentioning to someone you are serving with that you are gay makes rainbows appear on the ship.
No one has ever stopped to think just how homophobic our service men and women actually are regardless to what certain studies showed. It will take work to introduce out gays and lesbians to their military counterparts. It isn’t going to happen over night regardless of what left wing newspaper says it should.
Cam
DR, and DAEZ.
Our military likes to tell us to “Be Prepared” etc… well the fact that they have known something like this has been coming for a few years, and in fact their own studies reconmended allowing gays in in the late 80’s, to say that there has been nothing worked out and ready to go either shows they are delaying or they are incredibly inefficient.
reason
@[email protected]: Gates history extends far beyond this administration, Gates is his own person, thus praising Gates is praising Gates. I have been a fan of Gates long before he entered this administration and ever got involved in DADT which seems to be the underpinning of your life. You think that everything is supposed to be done with people hugging and holding hands out for the public to see, the world doesn’t work like that and Gates has always stepped up to the plate and performed. Iran-Contra was ultimately decided at the executive branch, and once a decision is made the goal shifts to carry it out to the best of ones ability. Iran-Contra is not the first time the executive branch has been involved in surreptitious activity nor has it been the last.
reason
@[email protected]: Why is Reason a ridiculous name?
[email protected]
@reason:
It’s ridiculous because you so rarely demonstrate it, as in bragging about admiring a documented liar about issues crucial to our national security, and a documented idiot for the same reason. E.g., the month the Berlin Wall came down Gates had to scrap a major speech he’d planned to give claiming that the belief that the Soviet Union was collapsing was a myth despite the fact his doctorate was in Russian/Soviet history. DUH!
To be more accurate, he’s an idiot savant whose sole genius is in making people forget that history and ignore his present bullshit such as claiming that an actual end to the ban has to wait for a plan being developed when, in fact, as I noted, Palm Center director Aaron Belkin reports there already IS a plan.
And I left out the fact that a few weeks after suddenly announcing in 2009 that he’d told his Pentagon General Counsel to look for a supposedly “more humane” way to implement the ban….which had NO relation, of course, to the fact that Obama, Inc., was in high Damage Control mode after those first homophobic court briefs defending DOMA that resulted in the annual DNC LGBT pride dinner being boycotted…he said that, “Gosh darn it, Aunt Bee, Otis and me has searched Mayberry high and low, high and low, and we just cain’t find a way around it!”
But, lo and behold, seven months later he announced that he would be releasing such changes, which he did this past March, minor as they were. At the same time, after having ignored it for more than a year and a half, he said he’d release “new rules and procedures in light of the appeals court decision in Witt versus the Department of the Air Force for the areas of the country covered by the appellate court.”
Of course, no such release happened, but, instead, the Obama DOJ went into court to try to kill Witt’s retrial, and then appealed the order to reinstate her.
@ “DR” & “DAEZ”—Marys, please, read some shit yourself such as the fact that, while it should be repealed, the sodomy ban in the UCMJ is NOT a functional problem that must be eliminated BEFORE the ban….just as benefits don’t have to be….nor—AS THE PALM CENTER DOCUMENTED—does ANY kind of “training” have to happen before open service.
Many gay vets have reported over the decades that they were out to their units without problems, and there are several documented cases from people being allowed to continue to serve while there legal challenges were progressing or after being ordered reinstated [Perry Watkins, Miriam Ben-Shalom, Keith Meinhold, Tracy Thorne-Begland, Grete Cammermeyer, Justin Elzie, et al.] or simply while the military decided what to do with them. Dan Choi was out in the Army Reserve for over a year before they finally discharged him, and Victor Fehrenbach is still on full-time active duty nearly two years after outing himself to the world.
BillyWingarden
@[email protected]: @[email protected]:
sure lots of gays are out to their unit and no one cares. What about the 14000 who got dismissed, many with a not so honorable discharge, or one that said reason”homosexual conduct”, even if that was admitting who they are.
Its obvious that there are a number of republican bigot mouths here using this forum to trash gates and obama etc.
If only we could draft them, send them to afghanistan, and have them meet their own kind, except under a different relgiious brand name.
To you freakouts- the end of DADT is history in the manking. So many good christian boys from states dominated by fundamentalist bible thumpers will suddenly discover that gay people are great people.
And for all time they will be innoculated against the virus of hate those churches use to poison society.
BillyWingarden
@reason:
‘gates has been explemary and has stayed above politics”
thats why Obama kept him.
Gates is a rare find these days. A republican who doesnt fall for the hatred and paranoia of the republican spin machine.
Which gave us Iraq, and in the process of the buildup for that war of lies, we didn’t have the troops available to capture/kill bin laden int he mountains in 2002
The final result of Bush’s idiocracy and Cheneys Iraq oil for profits game could well be a stolen sov nuc going off in a western city.
The republican legacy of the almost end of the world due to their lies and greed.