The Advocate: DADT and the Pentagon Survey
The Advocate’s Kerry Eleveld published an article today about the way Pentagon officials are handling the survey sent to troops on July 7 about the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. After speaking to Department of Defense officials, she is far from optimistic of how the Pentagon is handling the survey process.
There are s
ome positive elements to the story. Her anonymous sources involved with forums about repeal report that while nearly every service member reports serving with someone they believe to be gay or lesbian, the “vast majority” are not troubled by that.
Eleveld also highlights the concerns expressed by many of the precedent the survey sets for service members. While a Pentagon spokesperson now claims some troops were surveyed before President Truman desegregated the armed forces in 1948, the concept still leaves many in both Congress and the military concerned. Senator Carl Levin, one of the chief architects of repeal in the Senate, says “it would be really, really unacceptable for people in the military to believe it’s a democracy.”
As Eleveld explains: “Even Gen. James Conway, head of the Marines and one of the biggest detractors of repeal, saw the value in being decisive and straightforward. ‘Keep it simple,’ he noted during a DADT committee hearing in February. ‘I would encourage you to either change the law or not, but in the process, half measures would only be confusing in the end.’”
While the survey continues, it is important to note that at this time SLDN cannot recommend that lesbian, gay, or bisexual service members participate in any survey. You can read SLDN’s full warning to service members here.
07-20-10 By Dan Hennessey, Communications Intern |
2 Comments
Comments for this entry are closed.Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com on July 21, 2010 at 05.28 pm
Ms. Eleveld wrote:
“I don’t believe Defense Department leadership is being intrinsically mischievous….”
“Mischievous”????? Who knew that decisions about the lives of gay servicemen and women were on a par with naughty kittens who’ve lost their mittens?
OF COURSE there are some people with good intentions involved in the Pentagon Working Group, such as SLDN MAC member, former MCPOCG Vince Patton was when he was on the Military Working Group in 1993…until his conscience led him to resign when he realized the game was fixed using cards marked by CJCS Colin Powell.
If she thinks those running the table today aren’t just as determined to manipulate the “study” to perpetuate the ban then she missed another MAC member, former Assistant SECDEF Lawrence Korb, telling MSNBC last week that’s exactly what’s happening….
or has not been paying adequate attention to what’s been happening over the last year and a half.
Nowhere is that more evident than in all of her commentary about the hostile defense of the poll by Pentagon shill Geoff Morrell or she would have reminded him and us of what he said during a DOD briefing on May 19, 2009 [emphasis mine]:
“I can tell you, the Secretary has not asked his service chiefs, his service secretaries, his combatant commanders—anything of that sort—to sort of start to do, you know, polling on that matter. I DON’T THINK THIS IS A QUESTION OF POLLING ANYWAY. I MEAN, THIS IS A QUESTION OF WHERE THE PRESIDENT WANTS TO LEAD THE COUNTRY on this issue, and it’ll be a determination made by him as to if and when he wishes to pursue this matter with the United States Congress.”
Sean in NC on July 20, 2010 at 03.57 pm
The survey is not secure… it is possible to take it multiple times. It is also possible for non-military to gain access. Read this post on Americablog, and spread the word!! http://www.americablog.com/2010/07/i-just-took-dods-confidential-dadt.html