Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey said Tuesday that he has "serious concerns" over the impact of a repeal of the military's controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding gay and lesbian service members.
"I do have serious concerns about the impact of the repeal of the law on ... a force that's fully engaged in two wars and has been at war for eight and a half years," he told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
He agreed, however, that it would be fair to characterize his opinion as not being "strongly" for or against a repeal.
The general objected to a proposed moratorium on discharging people under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy before a repeal is formally enacted.
"I would recommend against it," he said. "We would be put in a position of actually implementing [a repeal] while we were studying implementation. And I don't think that would be prudent."
I feel strongly that don't ask, don't tell is a military question and nothing more. Our military exists solely to keep this country safe. At the moment, it is the best in the world at what it does, and I trust our generals. If they say that continuing don't ask, don't tell will help this country win wars, then I'll support that. If they say that allowing openly gay service members (more than 13,500 of whom have been discharged over the last 17 years) will give our military needed manpower, then I'll support that instead. This isn't a question of civil rights, or of moral judgments on gays, or anything like that. It's a question of what it takes to get the job done.
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Even now, more than half the military are opposed to gays serving openly - this according to military polling. I am not surprised - they have more than enough to think about without worrying about potential harrasment by the more extremist elements in uniform.
Likewise Adm Mullens foolish decision to allow females to serve at sea on submarines - what cost the redesign just for toilets and waste disposal? Cost in financial and convenience terms (submariners serve in unusually stressful conditions which don't need the rearranging of well-established protocols).
The current systems work - if it ain't broke, don't fix it!
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