Don't Ask, Don't Enlist

Oh what a wonderful day it was when President Obama signed the bill repealing the odious policy requiring gays in the military to stay in the closet. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was consigned to the dustbin of history, and a new era of homosexual civil rights began, promising our gay brothers and lesbian sisters full equality in the national armed forces in which they serve!

If I sound like Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential campaign sarcastically illustrating a potential Obama victory as the heralding of a new golden age, that's because what I wrote above isn't exactly true. Yes, Obama and the Democrats repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in the lame-duck session of the 111th Congress. But what the media aren't telling you (unless you read the Saturday morning paper, which no one does) is that the ban is actually still in effect. This is because one provision of the law is that the Pentagon reserves the right to keep the ban in place until its commanders are ready to certify the repeal. So far, despite Defense Secretary Robert Gates's support for lifting the ban, they have not done so.

The General Accounting Office may give the top brass some initiative in following Obama's and Gates's lead. It reported that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" cost the military $185.7 million in recruiting and training replacements for 3664 homosexual service personnel discharged for violating the ban, with an additional $7.7 million in administrative costs for doing all the paperwork involved. Also, many linguistic experts, along with other service personnel in critical assignments, were lost through the expulsions, hampering military readiness. So, lifting the ban would save money.

Homosexual rights groups hope that this will change the Pentagon's mindset and allow the lifting of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to go forward. Hey, there are those two words again - "hope" and "change." Right. I think the target date for lifting the ban is the twelfth of never . . ..