Top Defense Officials Seek to End ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ - NYTimes.com

Say what you will about this administration not getting enough accomplished, this is a landmark civil rights advancement, and just a step on the way to a much bigger fish, I believe.

The article states the Pentagon is taking a year long review of the policy. I think that's smart. The issue always seemed a lot more complicated than a lot of politicians make it out to be. The military is still a male oriented business and its important to figure out if there's going to be any problems with attitudes on the battlefield and any issues with favoritism. I'm not against repealing it as long as it doesn't interfere with the function of the army.

I agree, this has to be completely thought through and analyzed before making some kind of knee jerk reaction. I'm all for repealing it also, so long as it doesn't interfere with the function of defending our country.

Washington Times - BLACK: Danger to discipline

It appears there are some top defense officials who disagree...

"That ban is an essential element of military discipline", eh?

Riiiight, so I'm guessing that the armies of Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and Uruguay all suffer from a lack of military discipline, then.

It seems to me that allowing homosexuals to serve openly in the military would help it by encouraging more people to volunteer. Whatever ways it might somehow hamper the military, are certainly not significant enough to trump the "don't be a dick" principle, which I've always considered a pretty important principle.

Maybe I misunderstood the concept of "Dont ask Dont Tell". I actually thought it was meant to protect the individuals from Violent Homophobes. Personally I liked the idea of "one identity" in the military. I mean thats the militaristic way isnt it? Everything Uniformal?

But hey, whatever tickles your pickle I suppose.

Speaking of Gay though... did they have to use such a homoerotic pic of Gates & Mullen? They look like they wanna jump eachothers bones in this pic.

"Don't ask, don't tell" is almost like a modern Jim Crow law. African American struggles and the struggles of the LGBT population aren't the same by any means, but I do consider LGBT issues such as "Don't ask, don't tell" and gay/lesbian marriage to be the modern civil rights movement.

Just as we in the U.S. view the Jim Crow laws of the past, someday in the future people will look back on the current treatment of the LGBT population, slap their foreheads and say "I can't believe it was like that!"

The closest thing I can compare it to is Pat Tillman who was shot 3 times in the head by the Rangers fighting beside him. Even though the blood is 100% on the hands of the guys that killed him, we have to re-consider the placing superstars of the NFL into elite commando groups. Perhaps that didn't affect the situation at all, but it should at least be studied.

This is why I think an exhaustive study is a good idea. If it can work seamlessly, great. But if the army is going to have to deal with Tillman-like situations in the middle of a conflict, that could be really bad.

The reminds me of a recent Onion Video: Gays to Precious to Risk in Combat.