You are here: Home » Featured » General Powell Supports Admiral Mullen On Repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

General Powell Supports Admiral Mullen On Repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

02/03/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
“In the almost 17 years since the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ legislation was passed, attitudes and circumstances have changed. I fully support the new approach presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee this week by Secretary of Defense Gates and Admiral Mullen.” Those words were said by one of the major architects of the policy known as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell- General Colin Powell, and were printed in the New York Times. Indeed, this is one of the men that Senator John McCain said he would defer to regarding the repeal of DADT. “I listen to people like General Colin Powell, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and literally every military leader that I know… 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,” McCain told Chris Matthews on Hardball in ’06. Well, Senator McCain, General Powell is speaking, but it seems that you are not listening.

Senator McCain is facing a tough primary season in Arizona against a far Right candidate. In fact, Sarah Palin’s support for her old running mate actually drew the ire of the Tea Party groups who stated that she could not support McCain and be a true Tea Partier.

Instead of looking to Admiral Mullen and the current brass in the military, or to the man who helped write this legislation, Senator McCain is now trying to rely upon the voices of a variety of retired generals and admirals to state that this legislation must remain in place. Given that these honorable men are not in the military at a time when troop numbers are stretched thin and every able bodied soldier is needed, it is hard for them to really gauge what is going on within the military right now. There are many rank and file troops who know that their fellow soldiers are gay or lesbian, but do not turn them in because they feel that it is not worth it.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell puts greater strain on a military already stretched to the breaking point. Soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen are strained because of multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Each time a soldier is pulled out of the military because of DADT, that is a further hole in the fabric of unit cohesion. Losing a soldier to combat or to wounds is one thing. Losing a soldier to an unfair law that could be repealed is another.