The person who stepped up in Congress to speed up the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has a spine and impeccable credentials:
Rep. Patrick J. Murphy, 36, served in Iraq as a lawyer in the 82d Airborne Division. The second-term, self-described conservative Democrat from Buck County, Pa., told the Philadelphia Inquirer that his 11-year Army career convinced him the 1993 policy was unjust.
“I saw soldiers get thrown out of the military not for any kind of misconduct, but for being gay, being who they are,” he told the newspaper.
A vote was expected in the House late Thursday or today; a Senate committee was on a similar schedule for its measure.
Murphy makes his case by emphasizing the policy’s dual problems: It is discriminatory, and it “damages national security and hurts military readiness.”
About 13,500 service members have been discharged. (Studies show a disproportionate number of those are females and minorities. So a discriminatory policy manages to discriminate even further.)
Backers of repeal argue that it’s harmful to the country to lose trained troops while it is fighting two wars. (More than 800 of those discharged were “mission-critical” specialists — pilots, intelligence analysts, medics and linguists.)
It’s also costly. Training personnel, only to kick them out, has cost taxpayers $1.3 billion, Murphy estimates.
People who cling to fears about allowing gays to serve would do well to channel that worry toward our national security.
Consider the number of National Guard troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan due to military shortages, instead of being sent, say, to protect our southern border.
To meet recruiting goals, the military has been accepting greater numbers of people who lack high school diplomas, have not scored well on Army aptitude tests, or have been convicted of crimes.
In addition, it turns out young Americans are “too fat to fight.”
“It’s not drug abuse, it’s not asthma, it’s not flat feet — by far the leading medical reason is being overweight or obese,” said retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Norman Seip, part of Mission: Readiness.
More than a quarter of young adults are unable to meet physical requirements to join the military, the group reported. And 75 percent of young Americans between the ages of 17 to 24 do not qualify for the military because of failure to graduate from high school, criminal records or physical problems.
All of which makes a policy that keeps thousands of highly needed, highly qualified, educated, dedicated and honorable troops from serving our country completely incomprehensible. And darn close to aiding our enemies.
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