It's time to end DADT

As a retired Air Force sergeant, and conservative, this is probably a position that is in conflict with most of my peers in both groups but, it is time to end the absurd Clinton policy of Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell. Gays are every bit as capable of serving their country as anybody else and it seems that a former chair of the Joint Chiefs agrees....

In a column for the Washington Post, retired General John Shalikasvili explains why an end to DADT is not just inevitable and desirable, but ultimately a wash at worst.

DADT has been around since 1993, 18 years, and it has proven that as long as a soldier's sexuality isn't worn on his/her sleeve, and they perform their duties according to orders, gay men and women can serve admirably in the military along side straight soldiers. That leaves the question of, what then is the military's argument against gays serving? What it boils down to is the perception that straight soldiers are threatened somehow by being around gays but, since when in America do we discriminate against one minority group because the majority has an irrationally fearful perception of them?

Moreover, in the current war on terrorists, who are 99% Arabic speakers, it is vitally important to have plenty of Arabic-speaking civilians working for the military as translators....something of which we are disturbingly short. Over the last few years, the military has dismissed a large number of Arabic-speaking civilian employees for being gay. To me, this is not only a violation of civil rights but, a startlingly reckless position in terms of national security.

DADT is a ridiculous and archaic social experiment from the most ridiculous administration in my lifetime....I mean up until the current one....and it should be ended. No soldier should be displaying his/her personal lives and habits when in uniform. There are already rules that cover the punishment for that. We don't need to be excluding perfectly fit soldiers because we don't happen to agree with what they do on their own time.