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Gee, Mr. President — here’s one branch on board; what’s with the lack of spine to pursue the legislative end to DADT?
The secretary of the Army, John M. McHugh, said Wednesday that he was effectively ignoring the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law because he had no intention of pursuing discharges of active-duty service members who have recently told him that they are gay.Mr. McHugh, the Army’s civilian leader and a former Republican congressman from upstate New York, said that he had initiated the conversations with service members in recent months as part of the Pentagon’s review of how best to carry out a repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, which requires that gay service members keep their sexual orientation secret or face discharge.
…Mr. McHugh, who spoke at a breakfast with Pentagon reporters, said it made no sense to pursue discharges of service members as he speaks with them about the change in policy. Mr. Obama, Mr. Gates and Admiral Mullen have all asked commanders to assess opinion within the military about the change in law.
Mr. McHugh said it would be “counterproductive” to “take disciplinary action against someone who spoke with me openly and honestly.”
Note this is not an indication that it’s a promise to stop discharges if someone self-discloses to someone other than McHugh; if I were in the Army and read this I’d hardly see this as a sign to come out of the closet.
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Further proof Obama Inc. is…
…another Keystone Cops / Reno 911 administration. They just keep getting caught with their pants down regarding DADT.
McHugh, especially, can’t seem to decide which side of sanity on the issue he’s on.
Contradicting virtually everyone else in the Pentagon’s Jurassic Park, he declared that the Army could handle repeal with no problem. But, then, in the same breath, he said gay segregated units and assignments might be necessary.
Yesterday, contradicting his direct boss, Secretary of DEFENSE OF DADT Gates and the Chair of the Joint Chiefs, McHugh said rabid homophobe Lt. Gen. Mixon won’t be reprimanded for a possible violation of the UCMJ/federal law ban on advocating for/against legislation when he urged people to contact Congress to oppose repeal…and a definite violation of the charade Gates is leading that they’re FOR repeal.
Now McHugh, is contradicting them all…including Obama’s DOJ…in saying he won’t consistently enforce DADT.
I continue to believe we must stop however many discharges we can by whatever means, but the evidence that O Inc. simply doesn’t know what they’re doing does not instill confidence. Or, less politely, what the Hell’s going on?
If they want to stop discharges, rather than simply ignoring DADT [which IS better than nothing], why isn’t McHugh’s Commander-in-Chief using the powers Congress gave him to freeze gay discharges in the name of national security which he’s said such discharges WEAKEN?
There’s still some protection in the statement…>Note this is not an indication that it’s a promise to stop discharges if someone self-discloses to someone other than McHugh
True, but it does provide some pretty significant cover for sane-minded generals, etc. If ever the trickle-down nature of the military command structure were to do any good, that’s the way it could work.
Hey, give the guy a break.Obama is much too busy planning for offshore drilling by his pals in the oil companies (a practice even the Bush administration wouldn’t sanction) to pay attention to trifling matters like constitutional equality and civil rights.