Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Hold Your Breath On Repeal

Maybe I am too close to this story, but I am seething over the latest comments from military 'leaders,' who have been commenting this week on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' I am even angrier about advocates in Congress and the press, who don't challenge the blatant abuse of truth that these homophobes, and their political enablers, put forth.

Specifically....this is the type of quote that drives me nuts. From the New York Times:

“I do have serious concerns about the impact of 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,” General Casey told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We just don’t know the impacts on readiness and military effectiveness.”

Let me get to the greater point first...the blatant fallacy. There will be NO impact on readiness and military effectiveness. NONE. There is no need for a study to investigate something that has no grounding in reality.

How can we be so sure that readiness and 'unit cohesion' will not be an issue?

Well, let's see....Great Britain has done it. So has France. And Germany. Even Australia. Israel, too. Nothing happened to troop morale in any of those nations. Are we to believe that American men are just so hypersensitive that they would break out in hives at the thought of showering with their fellow gay soldiers (which they do now, anyway)?

And to that absurd second point about 8-1/2 years of wars. Iraq and Afghanistan are being set up to be endless occupations. As far as I know there is not even a formal declaration of war. What are these people talking about? The "War" on Terror? That Orwellian device is going to keep us in a perpetual state of war and these generals know that.

However, even if we buy that argument, how can we dispute the fact that Israeli soldiers, who should probably be more concerned about the state of their military than anyone, hasn't had any issues. And this from a country where Orthodox Jews are as virulently homophobic as the right wing of any religion?

One would think that this prime falsehood would be easily shot down, right?

So, why the Hell are our advocates in Congress, or reporters themselves not challenging this assertion openly?? As I wrote. It drives me nuts.

And now, it just keeps getting more annoying, because these same military homophobes are now saying that even placing a hold on expulsions, which is now being floated by Senator Carl Levin, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, is also unacceptable to them.

Personally, I have had it with America's backwardness on every single social issue. We are so behind other Western nations that it's frightening. We are backwards on health care....global warming....and every single glbt issue.

Sadly, given his track record on gay civil rights matters, I think we have a better chance of seeing Armageddon in 2012, than we do of seeing President Obama stand behind his promises to end this insanity.