Tag Archives: Michael Mullen

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Three votes


Democrats

On Thursday, Republicans in the Senate stood in the way of progress, blocking legislation to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

No surprise there — they’ve been turning a blind eye to the majority of Americans, legions of grassroots Democrats, and fellow lawmakers who’ve supported repeal for some time now.

But now, they’re also ignoring top military leaders — from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen to former Secretary of State Colin Powell — who support overturning this policy. They’re ignoring the 70 percent of American servicemen and women who say that repeal wouldn’t negatively affect morale, and the Pentagon study that says it won’t affect troop readiness.

They’re no longer simply holding up progress that would advance the American values of fairness and equality, enrich our military, and strengthen our national security — they seem to be willing to tune out just about anyone, all in the name of a political tally mark.

But we’re not done fighting.

We need just three votes to move forward on repeal — and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and our allies in the Senate have promised that the Senate will vote on repeal again before the year is out.

Your voice could be the difference right now: Write the Senate Republicans who are currently blocking repeal and tell them to stop playing politics with people’s lives.

We couldn’t have gotten to this point without your support.

Thousands of you added your names in support of the President’s call for repeal. Those petitions — 582,000 in total — were delivered by volunteers to Senator Susan Collins‘s office on Thursday morning.

Now, your voice could make sure this discriminatory policy is overturned before Congress adjourns — and that it doesn’t have to wait another year, or for another Congress to take it up.

And by reaching out to senators standing in the way, you will make this issue harder and harder for them to tune out.

Three more votes is all we need. The letter you send today could be the final push that gets us there.

Write Republican senators standing in the way of progress today — and let’s make sure we repeal this thing before the year is out:

http://my.democrats.org/DADTRepealLetters

Thanks,

Jen

Jen O’Malley Dillon
Executive Director
Democratic National Committee

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Big news on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”


Organizing for America

It’s time.

The Pentagon study released yesterday confirms what we’ve long known: The military is ready to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

The report found that 70 percent of troops do not believe the change would have a negative impact on morale, and troop readiness would not be affected.

This important news means that we are closer than ever to ending this discriminatory policy that punishes patriotic men and women who want nothing more than to serve our country — and harms our own security by preventing qualified and much-needed Americans from serving.

Last time, we were just two votes shy of passing repeal in the Senate. And now the lawmakers who have been dragging their feet have no excuses left.

Neither do we. On this issue, our voices may not get more powerful than they are today — after the military has weighed in, when the media is paying close attention, just before the Senate starts its debate.

Let’s ensure the Senate passes repeal — and sends it to President Obama’s desk — before the end of the year.

Please add your name to the President’s call to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” now.

The release of the Pentagon’s report is just one more sign that the days are numbered for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

But the Republican opposition in the Senate — led by Senator John McCain — is already digging in its heels.

People like Sen. McCain said they would defer to military leadership — and then refused to budge when people like Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell all came forward to support repeal.

These senators said they were worried about how repeal would weaken our military or hurt troop morale — and that we should wait for the results of the Pentagon study.

Well, the results are in: Our military believes the time has come to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

We know that some of these senators are going to do everything they can to shift their standards once again. But we don’t need them all to agree with us — we just need two more votes to end this policy once and for all.

With the hearings set to begin tomorrow, it’s important we make our voices heard now.

Join President Obama — and add your name to the call for repeal:

http://my.barackobama.com/RepealDADT

Thanks — now let’s make history,

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America

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MILITARY: Asked And Answered


Yesterday, after an exhaustive and at times controversial ten-month review of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen announced that the purported risk of repealing the discriminatory policy is quite low. The 274-page report was released one day early after Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) pressured Gates to give the Senate as much time as possible to review the results and lift the ban during the lame duck session. (The House passed the measure in May.) On MSNBC this morning, Lieberman said, “I believe we have more than 60 Senators, including a good solid handful of Republicans, who are prepared to vote to take up the Armed Services bill, which already has within it the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Gates himself endorsed the review and called on Congress to pass repeal before another court decision found the ban unconstitutional and compelled the armed forces to stop enforcing the policy. “Now that we have completed this review,  I strongly urge the Senate to pass this legislation and send it to the president for signature before the end of this year,” he said. “It is only a matter of time before the federal courts are drawn once more into the fray, with the very real possibility that this change would be imposed immediately by judicial fiat — by far the most disruptive and damaging scenario I can imagine, and the one most hazardous to military morale, readiness and battlefield performance.” Defense Department General Counsel Jeh C. Johnson and Army Gen. Carter F. Ham — the co-chairs of the Working Group that conducted the review — also reiterated that the study represented “the largest,  most comprehensive review of a personnel policy matter which which the Department of Defense has ever undertaken.” The study is far more comprehensive, for example, than efforts taken to prepare the force for the integration of African Americans and women.

LITTLE RISK FROM REPEAL:   The Working Group’s extensive survey of 400,000 servicemembers and 150,000 military spouses found that  70 percent of servicemembers said they would be able to “work together to get the job done” with a gay servicemember in their immediate units.  Sixty-nine percent admitted to working in a unit with a co-worker that they believed to be gay and, of those who did, 92 percent said that their unit’s “ability to work together” with a gay person was “very good,” “good” or “neither good nor poor” (89 percent for those in Army combat arms units; 84 percent for those in Marine combat arms units.) What’s more, 74 percent of spouses of military servicemembers said repeal of DADT would not have a negative “impact on their view of whether their husbands or wives should continue to serve.” The highest rate of resistance to lifting the ban came from the Marine Corps, where servicemembers said they were least likely to encounter gay troops. Whereas approximately 30 percent of servicemembers across all branches expressed “negative views or concerns” about lifting the ban, between 40 and 60 percent of Marines in various combat arms specialties offered a negative opinion. As Johnson explained, that resistance “is driven by misperceptions and stereotypes.” The Marine Corps respondents also indicated ” a lower percentage who had actual experience of serving in a unit alongside someone who was gay or lesbian,” Ham added. “We did find, for example, in Marine Corps and Army combat arms units who had — in combat environments when those were — when they were asked about their experience with gay servicemembers in their unit reported actually quite favorably on the unit’s performance. So I think — again, I think it’s a largely —  there is a differential in actual experience.” U.S. allies with experience in repealing similar bans, notably Canada and the United Kingdom, also saw indicators of opposition in pre-repeal surveys. Once the bans were dropped, however, repeal proved to be a non-event.

IMPLEMENTING REPEAL:   During the press conference yesterday, the military leadership stressed the importance of lifting the ban in a deliberate yet timely manner. The study itself offers  several recommendations. For instance, the Working Group assumes that implementation of repeal will depend upon “strong leadership, a clear message, and proactive education.” The report recommends equipping commanders in the field with the education and training tools to educate the force on  what is expected of them in a post repeal environment. The group also rules out the need for special regulations governing the conduct of gay servicemembers or the establishment of separate facilities and argues that the Department “should issue guidance that all standards of conduct apply uniformly, without regard to sexual orientation.” On the delicate issue of providing benefits to the same-sex partners of servicemembers, the report notes that while the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) prevents same-sex partners from accessing many benefits, there are some benefits that are available to anyone of a Service member’s choosing. “Department of Defense and the Services  should inform servicemember about these types of benefits, if the policy is repealed,” Johnson noted during the press conference, arguing that another set of benefits, which are not statutorily prohibited, but do not extend to same-sex partners under current regulation, “should be revised and redefined to include same-sex partners.” The Working Group does not, however, recommend that the DoD “revise their regulations to specifically add same-sex committed relationships to the definition of ‘dependent,’ ‘family members,’ or other similar terms in those regulations, for purposes of extending benefits eligibility.” As legal analyst Andrew Cohen points out, for gay or lesbian service members who choose to come out after the end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, “this means  no financial breaks on housing allowances or health care benefits that are available to married couples.” The Working Group also recommends that “service members who have been previously separated under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell be permitted to apply for reentry into the military.”

SENATE MUST ACT:   On Thursday and Friday the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold two days of hearings with Gates, Mullen, the co-chairmen of the Working Group, and the four Service Chiefs. In a preview of the hearings, Gates was asked about Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ)  recent argument that the study would not provide the military or Congress with sufficient information about the effects of military readiness and unit cohesion. Gates said McCain “is mistaken” before adding, “This report does provide a sound basis for making decisions on this law.” “It’s hard for me to imagine that you can come up with a more comprehensive approach,” he said. President Obama, who discussed the results of the study with Service Chiefs on Monday, also issued a statement endorsing the report’s findings and calling on the Senate to “act as soon as possible so I can sign this repeal into law this year and ensure that Americans who are willing to risk their lives for their country are treated fairly and equally.” Still, with a busy calendar full of economic concerns and urgency surrounding the new START treaty, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has yet to announce his floor plan for the National Defense Authorization Act – the bill which includes the DADT repeal amendment. Earlier this week, Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR), long considered a swing vote on the issue, said that he considered homosexuality a “sin” and would be voting against the measure. Newly-sworn in Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) – who voted against repeal in the House but supported the underlining National Defense Authorization Act – also  hinted that he would not support taking up the bill in the lame duck Congress. At least eight undecided senators promised to consider the results of the Pentagon’s Review before deciding how to vote on the measure.

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JUSTICE: Repeal DADT This Year

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Last week, the Washington Post reported that a Pentagon study group concluded that “the military can lift the ban on gays serving openly in uniform with only minimal and isolated incidents of risk to the current war efforts.” The report, which is due to President Obama on Dec. 1, found that more than 70 percent of active-duty and reserve troop respondents said the effect of repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) would be “positive, mixed, or nonexistent.” More than that, the survey’s authors concluded that once troops are allowed live and serve with openly gay soldiers, objections to ending DADT would drop. The Pentagon‘s findings closely mirror American civil ian attitudes to ending the policy as well. Many recent public opinion polls have found that large majorities of Americans support ending DADT. Moreover, the findings suggest that, as the Center for American Progress has documented in several studies on DADT, the U.S. is likely to see the same smooth transition to open service experienced by its allies in the U.K. and Canada. Yet, the federal government appears loathe to act. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said the courts would eventually strike down DADT but that he would like to see Congress take action in the lame duck session. And with Republicans — many of whom support DADT — set to take control of the House and more joining the Senate in January, repealing DADT this year is the best chance for ending the discriminatory policy.
COURTS OR CONGRESS: The legal battle over ending DADT is in full swing. Last month, a federal judge barred the Pentagon from enforcing the policy — saying it violated the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment and freedom of speech under the First Amendment — but the Obama administration appealed and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision, keeping the ban in effect. The Republican gay rights group Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) then appealed to the Supreme Court but the high court refused to stop enforcement while the lower court hears a challenge to the ban. While the ban lingers in the courts, Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Mark Udall (D-CO), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY ) are trying to build momentum to repeal DADT in the lame-duck session of Congress. “The Senate should act immediately to debate and pass a defense authorization bill and repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ during the lame duck session,” the senators wrote last week, adding, “If Congress does not act to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ in an orderly manner that leaves control with our nation’s military leaders, a federal judge may do so unilaterally in a way that is disruptive to our troops and ongoing military efforts. It is important that ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ be dealt with this year, and it appears that the only way that can happen is if it is on the defense bill.” Like Gates, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen has said that changes to DADT should be done in Co ngress rather than in the courts. If Congress passes the current DADT repeal language in the National Defense Authorization Act, the repeal would require certification from President Obama, Gates and Mullen and then Congress would have 60 days to review the certification before the Pentagon implementation. For his part, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has not firmly committed to moving on the legislation, saying, “If we could get some agreement from the Republicans that we could move the bill without a lot of extraneous amendments, I think that is something we can work out. Time agreements on a few amendments, that would be my goal.”

MCCAIN’S SHAME: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is considered the leading Republican voice on military issues in the Senate and he has repeatedly changed the standards by which he would support repealing DADT. First he said he would defer to military commanders, but when Gates and Mullen came out in favor of ending the ban, McCain decided that the opinions of the service chiefs were more significant and came up with a new line — letting the Pentagon finish its study. Now that the findings of the study have been leaked, McCain is still in full denial mode. Asked yesterday on NBC’s Meet The Press about the Washington Post’s report on the Pentagon’s conclusion about ending DADT, McCain stuck to his talking point that the study was flawed because, he said, it “was directed at how to implement the repeal, not whether the repeal should take place or not.” “I wanted a study to determine the effects of the repeal on battle effectiveness and morale. What this study is, is designed to do is, is to find out how the repeal could be implemented. Th ose are two very different aspects of this issue,” McCain said. Yet, the Pentagon study does precisely what McCain wants it to do: finding that ending DADT would be inconsequential to a large majority of active duty and reserve troops. “McCain seems to be saying he wants a do-over because he doesn’t like the findings and recommendations in the Pentagon report going to Secretary Gates,” the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a gay rights legal group which works to end DADT, said in a statement responding to McCain yesterday. “In other words, McCain is telling the Pentagon: Keep working until you produce the outcome I’m looking for.”

EXECUTIVE POWER?: The White House issued a statement last week saying that it wants a DADT repeal measure to stay in the Defense Authorization Bill, but fell short of offering a veto threat if it gets taken out and did not propose executive action, such as using the President’s stop-loss authority to suspend discharges. And the Obama adm inistration doesn’t even list ending DADT as a priority in the upcoming lame-duck session. The Wonk Room’s Igor Volksy noted that last week, the President announced that he would invite Congressional leaders to the White House to discuss “what we need to get done during the lame duck session” and only identified extending the Bush tax cuts for middle class Americans, “a whole range of other economic issues,” and foreign policy concerns like ratifying the START treaty, as priorities, yet DADT was notably absent. While White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said repealing the ban in the lame duck session is “worth a shot,” the White House isn’t doing much leaning on potential Republican votes to repeal DADT. LCR executive director R. Clarke Cooper said he h as met with four persuadable GOP offices recently and has discovered that the White House has not lobbied any of them on ending DADT. “[T]hese are all senators who would be willing to have a dialogue, and they have not heard from the White House Office of Legislative Affairs, which is an arm of the Executive Office of the President,” said Cooper. “So again, if President Obama is serious about this as a legislative priority, there are Republican offices that need a phone call.” As CAP’s Laura Conley and Alex Rothman write today, “It’s time for Congress to act in the interest of the American people by ensuring that the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act is passed with the current ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal language and sent to the president without delay.”