Mullen on DADT
SLDN welcomes the remarks made by Admiral Mike Mullen in a Pentagon Channel podcast. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs indicated new certainty that the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law will change.
Secretary Gates is reviewing some procedures in the current policy to see if that can be in any way changed before the law changes. So there's a lot of focus with respect to this right now. And certainly when the law changes, we get to that point, we'll carry out the law (emphasis ours).
Earlier in the year, Mullen (but more often Secretary Gates and National Security Advisor Jim Jones ) qualified his statements on DADT with an "if."
I would need some time for a force that's under a great deal of stress to look at if this change [DADT repeal] occurs to look at implementing it in a very deliberate, measured way. (May 24, 2009, ABC News, "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," emphasis ours)
The change in language from "if" to "when" does seem to indicate the Pentagon realizes the law will be reversed at some point. Further, DOD is even taking steps prior to legislative repeal through Congress to make DADT less draconian, per Sec. Gates' new proposal on third-party outings. The Associated Press reported on June 30:
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday he wants to make the law prohibiting gays from serving openly in the armed forces "more humane" until Congress eventually repeals it. He said he has lawyers studying ways the law might be selectively enforced.
"One of the things we're looking at is, is there flexibility in how we apply this law?" Gates said.
The defense chief, a holdover from the Republican administration of former President George W. Bush, told reporters traveling with him in Europe that the Clinton-era ban was written without much wiggle room.
The Pentagon general counsel is looking at potential avenues around full enforcement as a stopgap, Gates said.
08-17-09 By Paul DeMiglio, Senior Communications Manager |
1 Comments
Comments for this entry are closed.Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com on August 18, 2009 at 02.32 am
We suppose it is good news that Adm. Mullen apparently didn’t repeat his recent canard about how they can’t do anything until they figure out how to keep letting out gays serve from hurting nongay “military families” in a way he’s yet to define.
And, while we believe in positive thinking as much as anyone, there is no evidence that Gates’ “humane” comments were anything more than an attempt to further quiet those of us who are tired of their inaction.
1. Given what a financial and talent drain DADT is to the defense of our nation, given how controversial an issue it already was BEFORE candidate Obama promised to start fighting for its repeal the day he took office, it’s indefensible that the Secty of Defense didn’t already understand the law thoroughly before his June 30th comment.
2. What is his excuse for not having read the Palm Center’s report, issued more than a month before, which clearly stated:
“The ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy itself, as codified by Congress, also grants authority to the Department of Defense to determine the procedures under which investigations, separation proceedings, and other personnel actions under the authority of 10 U.S.C. §654 will be carried out.”
Like, Ragu, Mr. Secretary, “it’s in there.”
3. But not only did Gates incorrectly assert on June 30th that “[I]t’s a very prescriptive law. It doesn’t leave much to the imagination for a lot of flexibility,” but, nearly three weeks later, on July 16th, he told the Economic Club of Chicago 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!”
Well, actually, his exact words were:
“I have our attorneys at the Department of Defense looking to see if there is a way ... to enforce the law that finds some way in which we can apply it more humanely? ...
Tell you the truth, I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t know the answer to that question, and if it were an easy question I’d have probably gotten an answer back from my general counsel several weeks ago. But we are looking at it to see if there is any flexibility in which we can do what we have to do which is enforce the law but do it in a way that at least brings some flexibility to the process until the law is changed.”
HELLOOOOOO! Would one of SLDN’s attorneys please call Gates’ law-degree-by-mail “General Counsel” and read the sections of the law that specify exactly how they CAN do that? As Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach appears to have been outed in just the kind of circumstances that Gates supposedly wants to make an exception for, perhaps that would prevent him from being discharged.
In fact, one doesn’t need to be an attorney, or to have read the Palm Center briefs. Simply having Google and an ACTUAL desire to find the answer would suffice.
There are affordable shares left in the Brooklyn Bridge for anyone who believes that Gates is sincere.
I’m not buying.