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(12) Military Lab Rats
by Oliver North
Human
Events
Posted: February 2, 2010
No nation has ever had a better military than
today’s, all-volunteer, U.S. Armed Forces. Though I wouldn’t trade
anything for the young Americans I served with in Vietnam, or afterwards,
those presently wearing America’s uniforms are the brightest, best
educated, best trained, and combat-experienced military the world has ever
seen.
Now, in the midst of an unprecedented
ninth year of war and non-stop, high-stress deployments, their
Commander-in-Chief intends to put the capabilities of this extraordinary
force and our nation’s security at risk to carry out a radical social
experiment.
During his presidential campaign, Mr. Obama frequently promised he would
reverse the U.S. military’s long-standing “policy” prohibiting homosexuals
from serving in our military. Last October, at a Human Rights Campaign
dinner, he said “I'm working with the Pentagon, its leadership and the
members of the House and Senate on ending this policy…I will end ‘Don't
Ask, Don't Tell.’ That's my commitment to you."
Last week, tucked into the closing paragraphs of his State of the Union
address, the president said, “this year, I will work with Congress and our
military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to
serve the country they love because of who they are.” Set aside the
disingenuous rhetoric -- it’s not about “who they are,” it’s really about
“what they do” -- we now know the “repeal” process is already well
underway.
This week, Senator Carl Levin, (D-MI), Chairman of the Senate Armed
Services Committee -- an advocate of ending what he calls, “this
discriminatory policy” -- convened a remarkable hearing to determine “next
steps” in “meeting the president’s commitment.”
Testimony by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen,
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, revealed the Department of Defense
isn’t going to evaluate whether repeal of Section 654, Title 10 U.S. Code
-- the 1993 statute that bars active homosexuals from the military -- is a
good idea. Instead, the Pentagon is already working to undermine the law
and allow practicing homosexuals to enter and remain in our military.
According Mr. Gates, “The question before us is not whether the military
prepares to make this change, but how we best prepare for it.” He
announced a year-long “study” on how to implement a repeal of the law and
baldly asserted, “we have a degree of latitude within the existing law to
change our internal procedures in a manner that is more appropriate and
fair to our men and women in uniform.” In other words, in the Obama
administration, enforcing current law, overwhelmingly enacted seventeen
years ago, no longer matters.
Mr. Gates now acknowledges in the midst of war, he is implementing a
policy of “selective enforcement” to disregard a law that clearly states:
“The presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity
or intent to engage in homosexual acts would create an unacceptable risk
to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit
cohesion that are the essence of military capability.” So much for our
national security.
Though Admiral Mullen expressed his “personal belief that allowing gays
and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do,” he conceded
he does not “know for a fact how we would best make such a major policy
change in a time of two wars.” The Joint Chiefs Chairman also made the
curious observation, “we have in place a policy which forces young men and
women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens.”
How that can be the case in a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era seems to have
eluded the good Senators.
Unasked and unanswered are “where do we go from here” questions the
Senators should have posed: If Congress changes the law and allows overt,
practicing homosexuals in the ranks, should NAMBLA members be allowed to
serve? Will those who advocate abolishing “age of consent” laws be allowed
to don a uniform? Will the military have to acknowledge “same sex
marriages?” Will military chaplains be required to perform such rituals?
Will “same-sex couples” be entitled to military housing? Will these
“couples” be allowed to serve in the same unit or aboard the same ship?
Supposedly these issues and many more will be resolved over the next ten
months in a “working group” headed by Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson
and General Carter Ham, Commander, U.S. Army, Europe. Allegedly they will
consider ways to ameliorate the effects of this inane decision on
readiness, recruitment and retention in the world’s finest military. Then,
in 2011, Congress will vote on whether to repeal a law the O-Team is
willfully ignoring anyway.
Congress should not wait to decide this issue and become party to
potentially irreparable damage to our military. Congress controls the
purse strings of the Pentagon.
Both houses should go on record now so “We
The People” know who favors treating America’s Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen,
Guardsmen, and Marines like lab rats in Mr. Obama’s radical social
experiment.
Lt. Col.
Oliver North (Retired)
is a nationally syndicated
columnist and the author of the FOX News/Regnery books, "War Stories:
Operation Iraqi Freedom," and "War Stories III: The Heroes Who
Defeated Hitler."
Lt. North hosts "War Stories" on Fox News
Channel.
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4.
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11.
Human
Events, (Petition) National Security.
Human Events is the news source President Reagan called his "favorite
newspaper" and we still hold high the Reaganesque principles of free
enterprise, limited government and, above all, a staunch, unwavering defense
of American freedom.
12.
Lt. Colonel
Oliver North. Nationally
syndicated columnist and the author of the FOX News/Regnery books, "War Stories:
Operation Iraqi Freedom," and "War Stories III: The Heroes Who
Defeated Hitler."
Lt. North hosts "War Stories" on Fox News
Channel.
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