'Don't ask, don't tell' repeal ready by summer, Pentagon says
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Washington (CNN) – The military expects to be ready to implement the repeal of the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy by midsummer, a top Pentagon official said Friday.
Clifford Stanley -- the Defense Department under secretary tasked with overseeing the repeal -- told members of a House Armed Services subcommittee that the process will not be rushed "because we want to make sure that it's done right."
But "at the same time, we don't want to take forever to do it," he added.
Vice Adm. William Gortney, director of the military's Joint Staff, agreed with Stanley's assessment.
We are "making sure that as we get our arms around the magnitude of the challenge, we don't miss anything," Gortney said.
Friday's announcement was the first time the Pentagon has set a target date for the entire military to be ready for a repeal of the policy, which prevents gays and lesbians from serving openly in the armed forces.
Roughly 200,000 service members -- 9% of the total force -- have been trained on how to handle the repeal, Stanley said.
President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen will ultimately need to certify that the Defense Department is ready for a repeal of the policy. At that point, a 60-day countdown would begin before the repeal was officially implemented.
A recent Pentagon study concluded that allowing openly gay or lesbian troops to serve in the military would have little lasting impact on the armed forces. Opposition to the change was much higher in Army and Marine combat units than in the military as a whole.
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It's like removing a band-aid. Most people want to avoid the pain, and think that slowly pulling it off is best…. duh!?!what crap! rip it off quickly and get it over with.
::)
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The problem with doing it quickly is that there are legal issues that need to be overcome first.
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i'm not fighting or anything, but I think the only reason there are legal issues is because the opposition is dragging their feet through it.
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There are legal issues such as DoMA which forbids the US government from recognizing gay relationships. This means that gay partners/spouses can not get any of the benefits hetero spouses get; ie base housing, free medical care, etc, etc, etc, etc. They are going to have to work out a large number of issues like that before DADT can be repealed.
Also, Congress has to vote to approve the full repeal of DADT, which they can reject.
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Okay. So i guess the next step we should see is a comprehensive listing of items which need to be changed. And only when we see that list shrinking can we assume that things are changing for the better.
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I wonder what would happen with such things if they created "The United States of Canada" by merging the better things about each country into one country and eliminate a whole lot issues in the process?
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I wonder what would happen with such things if they created "The United States of Canada" by merging the better things about each country into one country and eliminate a whole lot issues in the process?
In another thread, you bashed the Canadian healthcare system, unless I misunderstood. So do you prefer the current US one? Although maybe this should start yet another thread.
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Not the entire healthcare system. There are definitely advantages to having universal healthcare when you've suddenly found yourself trapped in your car on the highway pinned between a concrete cross-over barrier and a transport truck. The only "issue" that I have with the Canadian healthcare system is the healthcare within my region of the province that I'm in. Once I step outside the region into another county, I've always had excellent experiences… It just seems to be within the general area that I live where it sucks donkey balls.
