Spencer Ackerman flags a "curious choice of words" from Defense Secretary Bob Gates, apparently bravely stating the case that maybe, someday, someone ought to look into that whole "Don't Ask Don't Tell" stuff that people keep talking about.
And so one of the things we're looking at is is there flexibility in how we apply this law in terms of -- well, let me give you an example. Do we need to be driven when the information, to take action on somebody if we get that information from somebody who may have vengeance in mind or blackmail or somebody who has been jilted....
In other words, if somebody is outed by a third party, we have to -- does that force us to take an action? And I don't know the answer to that and I don't want to pretend to. But that's the kind of thing we're looking at to see if there's at least a more humane way to apply the law until the law gets changed.
Spencer notes the nonsense that's at work here, "But doesn't this kind of absurdity -- we may have to discharge a soldier who's being blackmailed -- just argue for expediting the process of overturning Don't Ask Don't Tell?"
It does, indeed! But I can go even further! Not only does it argue for the immediate overturn of "Don't Ask Don't Tell," it presents, to my mind, a great example for why this dimwitted, asinine rule should have never been implemented in the first place! I can think of no reason -- no reason under the sun! -- why any commander should have had to worry about the sudden dismissal of his soldiers because of "blackmail" from "jilted" lovers until they idiotically adopted the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy, which opened the door to this possibility.
The United States has the finest Armed Services the world has ever known, but its leaders -- BY CHOICE -- decided to make "gay panic" its Achilles heel. But Robert Gates is so full of concern! Let's see if there's a humane way we can apply this nonsense, he says. I think it would be really "humane" of Secretary Gates to stop degrading our national security apparatus by randomly discharging valuable personnel for stupid reasons, if he wants to know my opinion!
Meanwhile, there really is nothing in the world stopping President Barack Obama from ending this practice today, five minutes from now, if he wanted to, despite what you may have been told.
MORE:
A 'More Humane' Implementation of DADT? [Attackerman]
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