At last, no more DA/DT

In his State of the Union speech last night, Obama said that he "will work with our Congress and the military" to repeal the policy that forces gay and lesbian service members to live a closeted life or face discharge. It has been a disaster. Among other ways, it has forced the discharge of some 30 much-needed linguists who speak Arabic and other languages of that region at the same time that we have a severe shortage of service personnel to translate the intercepted messages in our war zone.

Today, Reuter's reports that next week the Pentagon will unveil the plan that they have ready to lay the groundwork for the repeal. In other words, the military is ready.

But not John McCain (whose wife and daughter both publicly support gay marriage). Reuter's also reported that McCain, senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said: "I believe it would be a mistake to repeal the policy. . . This successful policy has been in effect for over 15 years and it is well understood and predominantly supported by our military at all levels."

Would you please define successful, Senator Out-of-Touch and Not-Very-Bright? Please tell us how has it been successful? And what about the polls that say the majority of our troops will support it? And even if they didn't, it's the right thing to do and it will be just fine. As Harry Truman proved when he ended racial segregaton in the military, despite the warnings of the politicians and military brass that it couldn't be done.

Ralph