Robert Gibbs is Spinning on Don't Ask, Don't Tell

by Michael Jones · 2009-05-16 07:27:00 UTC
Topics:

Robert Gibbs

Defining "spin" is a little like how the U.S. Supreme Court defines "pornography": you know it when you see it.  And in the case of spin, it's definitely on display with how White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is addressing questions about the firing of a gay Arabic linguist, Lt. Dan Choi, from the U.S. military earlier this month.

President Obama pledged to overturn "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the military policy that allows gay and lesbian soldiers to be fired for being open about their sexual orientation.  As Obama said on the campaign trail, this policy is not effective in protecting America's national security.

It's quite the opposite, actually.  "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" makes us less safe as a nation.  As if our military needed one less Arabic linguist, given the state of global affairs.  But beyond Lt. Choi, more than 12,000 other soldiers have been fired from the U.S. military since "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was put in place during the Clinton administration.

Watch Gibbs get grilled on the question below, and watch him struggle to answer the reporters questions about the dangers of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."  If you want to cut through Gibbs' spin, here's the truth: Obama has it within his power to halt the policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" immediately.  He can issue an executive order suspending the policy, while Congress debates overturning it.  But as you'll hear from Gibbs below, President Obama doesn't find this to be a "durable" solution, and would rather wait many more months or years before overturning the policy.

Funny, I didn't know that "durable" was a synonym for "just."  It's not, of course, but you won't hear Robert Gibbs say that.  Take it away, Gibbs:

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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