Military Readiness and Common Sense

It's almost impossible to pick up the Washington Post, the New York Times or the Denver Post these days without seeing fresh evidence for what common sense told all but one of our NATO allies years ago and is telling us now: the federal statute banning gay men and women from serving openly in our stressed-out military is wrong and is at odds with military readiness

Forget the moral and ethical grounds, or the fact that gays and lesbians are the last group to be discriminated against officially, by law. The statute is wrong for the most practical of reasons: it is hurting the ability of our military to fight the kind of wars we are waging now in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the counterinsurgencies we are likely to be fighting in the future.

In a widely reported story, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told a group of military officers and defense contractors meeting in Colorado Springs last Tuesday that United States ground forces will be growing by 90,000 over the next five years. Where are these troops going to come from?

Will we -- the taxpayers -- be paying ever larger enlistment bonuses and granting more waivers to men and women who don't meet the educational and intelligence requirements for service?

Will the military grant more waivers to convicted felons? Between 2006 and 2007 the Army and Marine Corps almost doubled the number of so-called moral waivers, from 457 to 861, according to the most recent figures from the Defense Department. We are not talking about traffic tickets. We are talking about serious crimes, ranging from manslaughter to armed robbery, from kidnapping to child molestation, from rape to making terrorist threats.

Think about it. Would you rather be sharing your quarters with a thief (or worse) and his rifle or with a law abiding person whose sexual orientation is different from your own?

It defies reason for the military to embrace people found guilty of such serious crimes while turning away an estimated 10,000 gay men and women every year and discharging a few hundred more, including those with essential language skills -- Arabic translators, for example -- as well as doctors, medics, and pilots. And who knows how many currently serving are living in fear that their sexual orientation will be revealed and they will be involuntarily discharged?

Recent stories revealed that soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan were returning to conditions of squalor at Fort Bragg. "These were experienced, battle-hardened soldiers who may be considering whether they want to make a career of the army," the Secretary said, adding "troops we can ill afford to lose."

At this point, the military can ill afford to lose a single man or woman. Nonetheless, the law -- a law passed by Congress -- requires that if that man or woman is openly gay, he or she must be discharged.

President Truman broke down the barriers that kept the military racially segregated. It's time to break down the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" barrier too. Our military and our country will be stronger for it, and a little common sense will be restored.