Congress Compromises Our Military With Repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell

The United States military discriminates. It has to. When it fails to discriminate, the mission of the United States military is compromised. There are many things that can get in the way of the military completing its mission, whether it be the social issue of gays serving openly in the military to even one's personal dietary beliefs. When these issues prevent our military from training or get in the way of the mission, discrimination is in order.

I recall when I served in the military and we were taken out to the desert to complete training with the Army's $40 million hospital tents known as DepMeds. It was my unit's mission to have an operational 1,000 bed hospital operational within just a few hours once the components of the tent were dropped.

During this crucial training mission, one of the officers dietary requirements weren't met ahead of time, which compromised his training. He was Jewish, and he didn't make preparations with the other officers for his Kosher meals. Due to his religious beliefs, he was allowed to seek out Kosher foods. Three days later, he was still looking without any reporting back to the chain of command. He was AWOL, but the chain of command allowed the situation and they were just as much to blame. The crucial focus of training was clouded with where was this soldier. As I saw first hand, it only takes a minor issue to get in the way of critical training.

So now we have this decision to allow homosexuals to openly serve in the military. Don't Ask Don't Tell allowed them to serve as well, but it prevented issues like I described above from getting in the way with the mission at hand. Repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell and the ban on gays serving openly in the military opens up a can of worms and will bring issues into the military that will compromise the mission at hand. When soldiers lives are on the line, social experimentation needs to be removed from the military. Yesterday's decision only pushes further social experimentation that will soon compromise the mission whether it be on the battlefield or training.

Even the most professional of soldiers will find themselves entangled in the issues that will soon surface. For instance, now gays are openly serving, will they be allowed to marry in the military and will religious chaplains who preach God's word forbidding homosexuality be forced to marry them under orders of their chain of command with yesterday's repeal. You see, these things do matter and these issues will cause tension in the military that was prevented with Don't Ask Don't Tell. Just like going basically AWOL to look for Kosher food, there will be consequences for the military now with the repeal.

Then you have to ask what's next. What group of people the military openly and rightfully discriminates against will force themselves upon the military? What will be the consequences?

Because the military has one main goal--fight wars to defend the Constitution. When these issues get in the way of that, all Americans will be affected.