Howard Dean on Gay Troops Taking Bullets

What a weekend when it comes to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." On Friday afternoon, right about the time millions of people leave work for the weekend and the mainstream media news cycle slows down, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates issued a fairly stinging memorandum lecturing Congress not to touch "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal legislation until after the 2010 midterm elections, once the Pentagon has completed the 1,450,000th study on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

"I hope Congress will not do so, as it would send a very damaging message to our men and women in uniform that in essence their views, concerns, and perspectives do not matter on an issue with such a direct impact and consequence for them and their families," wrote Gates, with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen signing on.

Sending a very damaging message. That's curious language to include when talking about a policy that celebrates discrimination. If anything, wouldn't a policy that continues to fire well-qualified troops, as well as prevent thousands of others from joining, solely because of their sexual orientation, send a very damaging message, too?

Perhaps what hurts the most (to paraphrase dance artist Cascada ... sorry, couldn't resist!) is that the White House seemingly gave some mojo to Gates' and Mullen's letter, suggesting that a repeal might not be on the table this year, despite promises through the roof. And that's the scary thing about politics, because the longer you wait, the more difficult it gets to repeal something. That's a point that Aaron Belkin from the Palm Center spells out pretty clearly.

"The White House knows that the political environment will become more challenging over time. If repeal doesn’t happen this calendar year, it is unlikely to pass until after the next presidential election," Belkin said in the wake of Friday's missive.

Anyone else feel like waiting at least three more years for an end to one of the most discriminatory practices etched into law?

More than one hundred activists certainly aren't thrilled about waiting, and showed up in Washington, DC this weekend to express their outrage. Their message? The Pentagon and the White House might want to jump ship on repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," but we won't let them.

Six more folks were arrested at the event, in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience aimed at drawing attention to the injustice of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." And the folks behind the rally, those wonderful rabble rousers at Get Equal, also brought former DNC Chair and 2004 Presidential Candidate Howard Dean to the event to give him a chance to talk about why "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" should have been repealed yesterday.

According to Dean, we need gay and lesbian soldiers, like Arabic translator Lt. Dan Choi, in the Armed Forces in order to keep our military the best in the world.

"If Dan Choi were still translating Arabic, we'd just be another step ahead of the game. We can't afford to lose any talented people. To kick talented people out of the United States military because they happen to be gay or lesbian makes no sense at all," Dean said. "Now this is not a tough one ... the American people know this is the right thing to do. They want to have a strong military."

Dean went on to draw some connections between marriage equality and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and brought up the fact that the first person wounded under President George W. Bush's Iraq War was an openly gay soldier, Marine Staff Sgt. Eric Alva. Sgt. Alva stepped on a landmine outside of Basra that broke his right arm and injured his leg so bad, it had to be amputated. As Dean notes, folks like Sgt. Alva deserve equality inside the military (and end to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell,") but they also deserve full equality when they come home from the military (in the form of marriage equality).

"If somebody is brave enough to take a bullet for the United States of America, then they ought to have equal rights once they come home just like everyone else," Dean concluded.

Ah, but for one really loud scream in Iowa six years ago, how things might be different today ...

Another layer in the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" debate was mentioned by Speaker of the House U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who countered Friday's "let's delay some more" memo with a plea that the White House figure out some way to stop discharging current soldiers who are openly gay.

"The administration should immediately place a moratorium on dismissals under this policy until the review has been completed and Congress has acted," said Pelosi.

But who knows, maybe the Pentagon needs a 1,450,001th study before the White House would take a step like that.

Photo credit: The U.S. Army