Pentagon To Senate: PLEASE End Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Before Courts Do!

The Pentagon, realizing that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will end one way or another, and probably soon, has asked the Senate to move quickly to repeal the law one court has already ruled unconstitutional. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates this weekend said, “The timing and the legislative approach and so on, that is completely up to the Congress. All I know is if this law is going to change, it’s better to be changed by legislation rather than have it struck down by the courts.” Gates knows that the repeal bill the Senate is considering gives the Pentagon far more control than any court order will.

The Huffington Post reports, “The Pentagon is trying to make it easier for the Senate to consider lifting the ban in the current postelection session. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday he will release a study of the effects of repeal on Nov. 30, a day earlier than planned.”

“Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said later that Gates pushed his staff to deliver the report a day early in order “to ensure members of the Armed Services Committee are able to read and consider the complex, lengthy report before holding hearings with its authors and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”

“The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff [Admiral Mike Mullen] said he supports Congress using its lame-duck session to end the ban known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

“The courts are very active on this. And my concern is that at some point in time the courts could change this law and in that not give us the right amount of time to implement it,” Mullen said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“Mullen said he supports ending the ban because asking people to lie about themselves “goes counter to who we are as an institution.”

As I’ve written before,

“Over the past quarter-century, since 1985, America has had seven Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And five of the seven now support gays serving openly in the military.”

“We now have Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John M. Shalikashvili, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, under whom “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was enacted, and former Commander in Chief, President Bill Clinton, under whom “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was enacted, and many other military leaders at the highest levels, all stating that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” should be repealed.”