{"id":14736,"date":"2009-05-07T17:37:48","date_gmt":"2009-05-07T23:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=14736"},"modified":"2009-05-07T17:37:55","modified_gmt":"2009-05-07T23:37:55","slug":"dont-ask-dont-tell-dont-maintain-this-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/05\/07\/dont-ask-dont-tell-dont-maintain-this-policy.html","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell — Don’t Maintain This Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sam Sedaei has an excellent article on HR 1283<\/a> (“Military Readiness Act of 2009”), which basically revises the section of federal law that’s behind “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” instructing “The Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Navy, may not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation against any member of the Armed Forces or against any person seeking to become a member of the Armed Forces.”<\/p>\n

It’s about time.<\/p>\n

I mean, really, DADT is the worst of all possible worlds. It foments mistrust. It requires deceit and hypocrisy. It says everything’s okay as long as people keep quiet. And it still allows reprisals and “outings” that throw qualified military personnel out of the service of their country.<\/p>\n

Sedaei does an excellent job disarming the major attacks made on the legislation by a flurry of retired generals and admirals, which boil down<\/a> to three major points:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The military is special and tradition-bound, so don’t rock the boat, otherwise people will quit or won’t sign up. <\/li>\n
  2. Military service is not a right but a privilege, so the military should get to make up its own rules for membership.<\/li>\n
  3. Gays will be discriminated against in the military, which will make them all angry and more prone to betraying their country or being blackmailed. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I have two words for you. Blacks. Women.<\/em> <\/p>\n

    If you believe that the major opposition to both Blacks and Women being integrated into the armed forces should have been coddled and accepted and gone along with, then, yes, the above makes sense. Otherwise, the argument is just tradition-bound (if not homophobic) twaddle.<\/p>\n

    Sedaei does a much better job than I just did, but that’s what it boils down to. Read the article if not already convinced.<\/p>\n

    Ironically enough, this article<\/a> — about a gay Arab linguist about to be booted from the military — is pretty worth reading, too, if you want to see more about how ridiculous this policy is, and how Obama doesn’t really need to wait for HR 1283 to take action to suspend DADT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Sam Sedaei has an excellent article on HR 1283 (“Military Readiness Act of 2009”), which basically revises the section of federal law that’s behind “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” instructing “The Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the … Continue reading “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell — Don’t Maintain This Policy”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gay-stuff","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":134716,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/16\/chaplains-gone-wild.html","url_meta":{"origin":14736,"position":0},"title":"Chaplains! gone! wild!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 16-Sep-17 10:57am","format":false,"excerpt":"The military is a microcosm of society as a whole, even with the added layer of discipline and mission. So it shouldn't be surprising that questions of religious intolerance and excessive zeal -- and just plain bigotry -- would find their way into the armed services. It's troubling amongst the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/unnamed-9.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7786,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/08\/11\/the_ministry_of.html","url_meta":{"origin":14736,"position":1},"title":"The Ministry of Silly Walks","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 11-Aug-05 8:22am","format":false,"excerpt":"This just strikes me as goofy. The Pentagon will hold a massive march and country music concert to mark the fourth anniversary of 9\/11, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13356,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/01\/14\/when_the_only_tool_you_ha.html","url_meta":{"origin":14736,"position":2},"title":"When the only tool you have is an army, every problem looks like a war","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 14-Jan-09 8:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"What? Someone from the military suggesting that we need to spend money on things other than the military? Inconceivable! The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday that...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131260,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/13\/the-us-military-and-mercenaries.html","url_meta":{"origin":14736,"position":3},"title":"The US Military and Mercenaries","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 13-Aug-16 12:42am","format":false,"excerpt":"This article has some flaws -- much of what it labels \"mercenaries\" are not what most folk would think of (non-military armed forces, like the old Blackwater folk), but simply war zone contractors.That said, there are plenty of cases where hired contractors are actually armed forces under the Pentagon's \"direction\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136623,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/28\/in-memorium.html","url_meta":{"origin":14736,"position":4},"title":"In Memoriam","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 28-May-18 4:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The people who have served and died in our armed forces are a mixed bag, as any collection of humans would be. Some were drafted; others volunteered. Some were drawn by patriotic service; others by the benefits. Some joined in times of peace; others in times of war. Some were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/memorial%2Bday.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/memorial%2Bday.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/memorial%2Bday.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":134844,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/23\/look-truly-patriotic-act-allegiance.html","url_meta":{"origin":14736,"position":5},"title":"A look at a truly patriotic act of allegiance","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 23-Sep-17 1:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Immigrants being nationalized swear an oath of allegiance, not to the flag, not to the military, not to the national leader, not to a cultural group or historical victory or nationalist value set or symbol or even to a vague \"United States.\" They swear an oath to the US Constitution.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/naturalization-ceremony.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}