Gay Military Discharges More Important Than National Security

You know, there are a few things that I kind of lump together as being, in theory, the same thing.
The Boy Scouts of America
Marriage
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell - The military policy that discharges military personell out if they find out that they are homosexual

The Boy Scouts of America kicks out any scout leader they find to be gay. They will do the same favor to any scout that is found to be gay. This stems from a ruling (Boy Scouts of America vs Dale) in which the Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts of America is a “private organization” and as such, can pick and choose their members at will. It’s a settled case. There’s no further need for comment here. But, if you are interested in scouting and are gay, or an open-minded heterosexual who isn’t threatened by homosexuals, check out Scouting For All.

It’s necessary to keep marriage from the gays for the same reason it’s necessary to keep gay scout leaders and gay scout troops away from boys scouts. Actually, I don’t know what the reason is. Can someone explain the logic behind either one?

The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy baring open homosexuals from military service is just stupid at this point in time. You can read the except below and form your own opinions. The military argued that it was necessary to exclude homosexuals to “maintain unit cohesion”. Well, the truth of the matter is, there are many soldiers in Iraq who are gay. What’s more, the guys in their unit knows that they are gay. It’s not a problem. That’s reality.

Another reality is that if the higher ranking officers find out about it, they will begin military separation (discharges) for the homosexual soldiers, AFTER THE STOP LOSS ORDER IS TERMINATED. Right now, because the military is having trouble filling their ranks with soldiers who have no desire to go and die in a war built on lies (shocking, isn’t it?), they are keeping everyone in that they can. And that means even homosexual soldiers. So, what does that say about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and unit cohesion?

The U.S. Military, The Congress, and The President of the United States cares so much about the security of the United States and stopping terrorism where ever it’s found, that they turn around and fire Arabic linguists who were found to be homosexual. That is more important to them than our national security.

Even the 9/11 Commission said that government “lacked sufficient translators proficient in Arabic and other key languages, resulting in a significant backlog of untranslated intercepts.”

And who knows, some of those “untranslated intercepts” could have just been the plans to blow up Grand Central Station in New York City or Los Angeles International Airport.

But at least, we can all go to bed at night knowing that there will be no homosexuals who will have a career in the military, and that if some terrorist plot is discovered by a translated intercept, that it will be a heterosexual linguist who translated it, if we can find one. That’s comforting.

One Arabic linguist was discharged from the military for violating its “don’t ask, don’t tell” sexual orientation policy in fiscal year 2004, according to records obtained by an advocacy group.

In the first 10 years of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the military discharged 54 Arabic and nine Farsi speakers for violating the policy, according to the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military. In fiscal year 2004, however, there was just one Arabic and no Farsi speakers discharged, the center said Wednesday. That compares to at least three enlisted personnel discharged the previous year.

“The military does not like to admit firing gay Arabic linguists during a dire shortage because the public doesn’t understand why we would rather fire gays than have enough Arabic linguists to translate intercepted cables,” said Aaron Belkin, director of the center based at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

In 2004, the 9/11 Commission found the government “lacked sufficient translators proficient in Arabic and other key languages, resulting in a significant backlog of untranslated intercepts.” [...]

Besides the Arabic linguist, others linguists discharged under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in fiscal year 2004 included 22 Spanish, three Korean, three French, one Chinese, one German and one Tagalog speaker. The center obtained the data from Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., who requested the statistics from the Defense Department. (source)