Senator John McCain's Backslide on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

by Michael Jones · 2010-02-03 05:44:00 UTC
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John McCainFour years ago, Sen. John McCain said the day that the military leadership came to him and said it was time to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," he would seriously consider changing the law. That day was yesterday, with Admiral Mike Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates appearing before the U.S. Senate to say that they both agree that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" should be repealed.

Naturally, given Sen. McCain's comments, you'd expect him to be on board with a full repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," right?

Wrong. In fact, Sen. McCain has become one of the Senate's most outspoken supporters of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," saying that the policy is effective and is keeping America safe. Of course, the only problem with that statement is that it now flies in the face of what senior military leaders are saying.

Tell Sen. John McCain to follow through with his promise to support military leaders when they said it was time for a repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Sen. McCain's backtracking is keeping in place a policy that hurts national security, punishes lesbian and gay troops, and damages the integrity of the U.S. military.

The statement made by Sen. McCain in 2006 said that he trusted military leaders to know when the time was right to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

"The day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, Senator, we ought to change the policy, then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it because those leaders in the military are the ones we give the responsibility to," said Sen. McCain in 2006.

Sen. McCain now has to decide whether he wants to live by those words, or go back on them. Because Adm. Mike Mullen, who as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff happens to be the highest ranking U.S. Armed Forces officer in the country, has now come to the U.S. Senate and said that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" should be repealed. Adm. Mullen said yesterday that keeping the law in place isn't fair to gay and lesbian soldiers, and it's not consistent with the integrity of the military.

"No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens," said Adm. Mullen. "For me, personally, it comes down to integrity -- theirs as individuals and ours as an institution."

Sen. McCain got his wish. Senior military officials are now coming to him and asking that the law that denies the rights of openly gay and lesbian soldiers to serve their country be repealed. But he's not listening.

Instead of trusting senior military officials like he said he would, Sen. McCain called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" an effective policy. But there's nothing effective about a policy that has fired 14,000 soldiers from the U.S. military, has prevented thousands of others from joining, and has cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to implement.

It's time to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Adm. Mike Mullen gets it. Defense Secretary Robert Gates gets it. Now it's time to put the pressure on Sen. John McCain, so that he gets it, too.

Photo credit: wellohorld

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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