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Loading ...Obama meets military advisors over DADT
03.04.2009 8:40am EST
(Washington) The White House says President Barack Obama has begun consulting his top defense advisers on how to lift a ban on gays serving openly in the military.
But the administration won’t say how soon that might happen or whether a group of experts will be commissioned to study the issue in-depth, as some Democrats have suggested.The move enables Obama to say he’s making good on his campaign promise to reverse the law, but doesn’t lock him into doing so anytime soon. The carefully calculated statement, released this week by White House spokesman Tommy Vietor, leaves enough wiggle room to prevent the hot-button issue from consuming Obama’s foreign policy agenda, which is dominated by ending the Iraq war and salvaging operations in Afghanistan.
“The president supports changing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Vietor said in the e-mailed statement.
“As part of a long-standing pledge,” Obama has begun consulting closely with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen “so that this change is done in a sensible way that strengthens our armed forces and our national security,” Vietor said.
The statement was released in response to legislation reintroduced by Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., that would repeal the ban. Tauscher’s bill attracted 148 co-sponsors last year, but House leadership never pushed for a floor vote.
Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill support repealing the ban but did not immediately promise to press the issue.
“We got a lot of very big issues, and I think the Department of Defense will be engaging that as well in terms of considering the viability of that policy going forward,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Tuesday.
In 1993, President Bill Clinton sought to open the military to gays as one of his first acts as president. The issue quickly divided Democrats and helped GOP critics cast Clinton as a social liberal out of touch with the military.
President Obama is the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces. No in-depth study should be performed to determine wether or not it would be convenient to allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military. The president should do what is right and repeal DADT and fulfill his promise to us. End of story. Period.
There’s no excuse for foot-dragging on this one. It could be the easiest bill to pass this year. Get it done.
DIDN T ANYBODY SEE THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW LAST NIGHT !!???? IT WAS ABOUT THIS AND WHAT A FARCE ON HOW IT CAME TO BE–WE SHOULD BE OUTRAGED !!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, he sure hit the ground running!! Good for him.
I hope this will work out.
On the Rachel Maddow show last night an author of a book regarding this issue had interviewed the military officials who were consulted in the 1990s. They stated they made up all the excuses to prevent gays in the military based on ignorance, fear and religion. Like we did not know that already. It appears we are guilty of “The Gay”
People the best thing todo is write to ur congress man or woman and tell them this thing needs to happen now… the time for change is now!!! the US, China, and Russia are the last nations to continue to have a ban on gays in the military…..
Veronica: If you and others would learn the law, you would see that DADT is a law. Not a presidential order. As a law passed by Congress, it MUST be repealed by Congress. Pres. Obama CANNOT reversed it by executive order.
Well ok, if that were the case then,QK, why not introduce the repeal bill in the congress instead of “consulting” first with his generals,ect,ect,ect. Not that I support the repeal, personally speaking, because as far as I’m concerned it’s all just a tactic to start drafting us to fight Mr. and Mrs. Hetero’s battles and wars. This is yet another prime example of presidential foot draggin’.
Shawn,
Where did you get this nutty hatred of all straights from…. particularly when there are many fair-minded straights fighting on the gay side for marriage and other rights? And particularly when we gays are here and walking around today March 4th, 2009? All those gays, you and I included were due 99.99% of the time to Mr and Mrs Hetero!!!
And I intend to honor my very own set of Mr. and Mrs. Heteros out of whose loins I was derived and who are no longer here by with another small display of flowers. True, I didn’t ask to be born, but they brought me into the world, loved me and I still honor their memory.
@shawn. Are you really that ignorant?
I don’t see how Obama’s waiting for it to come to his desk can be described as “foot dragging”, his hands are tied on this one and the least he can do in the waiting period is make himself extensively aware of all aspects of it which is what it seems he’s trying to do by meeting with all of these people.
The best thing for us to do is what SGT Garcia suggested. Writing to your congressperson asking them to support the repeal and do whatever they to get the bill on the floor as fast as they can.
I am so glad that Rachel Maddow has been reporting about this issue! I don’t we should just settle for this to be abolished, we need to expect them to lift this restriction, and provide benefits to partners in the same sense. I believe it should cost less than all the court battles about having “the Gay” and provide us with fuel to end the fight throughout the United States with a law! It would be the perfect follow-up law.
ok morgan so what’re ya sayin’ here bud? That HOMOsexuals are the ones and have always been the ones causing all the strive and hardship in the world? Warfare is the EXCLUSIVE domain of brainless heteros! Every major war EVER fought can be directly attributed to THEM! The more they crank out and overbreed the surplus population the more wars need to be fought to lower that population and, in the process, squander our ever dwindling natural resources! Along with overpopulation comes POVERTY, famine, disease and general social hardship! It doesn’t take a genius folks to realize just how very destructive these hetero idiots truly are! Sad thing is, is that THEY CANNOT STOP!! preaching to a breeder about the dangers and ills of over breeding is like trying to convince an anorexic that they’re to thin. It simply falls upon deaf ears. GET IT! They(breeders)are an extremely ignorant, violent species and left to their own devices will eventually destroy this world upon which we live. We already have to live a sub-standard existence thanks to them. what else do we need to sacrifice?
Shawn, didn’t you know that the breeders need not worry about any of those things? Just ask one and they will tell you that “the Lord will provide, as it says in scripture.” I wonder if this includes paying the rent, the utilities, the credit card payments, etc.?
I wouldn’t mind sacrificing Shawn. Make all of us look like idiots with his anti-hetero BS.