Free Republic

Click here to find out more! America is one of many countries that forbid openly gay people to serve in the military. Others are: Cuba, China, Egypt, Greece, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Turkey and Venezuela. See a pattern? With a few exceptions, those are not countries where free people want to live. By contrast, Australia, the United Kingdom, Israel, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia and Spain all allow gay people to serve. No country has America's in-between policy: Gays can serve -- as long...

The Congressional Budget Office today released a new report on the risk of a fiscal crisis occuring in the United States due to our long-term debt... The bottom line is that the longer we prolong dealing with our debt problem, the greater the risk of a fiscal crisis, and the more unattractive the options become for digging ourself out of the mess. It outlines several consequences for growing debt, including crowding out of private investment and the need for higher taxes and/or spending cuts. Of higher taxes, however, it warns that, "To the extent that additional tax revenues were generated...

WASHINGTON — The fight to allow gay and bisexual people to serve openly in the military is already drawing political blood in Washington, but tucked into the same 852-page Pentagon policy bill as the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” is a little-noticed amendment that takes on another emotionally charged issue: making abortion easier for military women in war zones. In a vote that advocates of abortion rights sought beforehand to keep quiet, the Senate Armed Services Committee passed a provision on May 27 to allow privately financed abortions at military hospitals and bases. Current law bans abortions in most...

Rising rates of obesity among young Americans could undermine the future of the US military, two retired generals have warned. More than a quarter of young Americans are now too fat to fight, they said. Writing in the Washington Post, the ex-commanders said the fat crisis ruled out more potential military service recruits than any other medical factor. They want Congress to introduce laws to give US children better nutrition in schools, with less sugar, salt and fat. John Shalikashvili and Hugh Shelton, both former chairmen of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote: "Obesity rates threaten the overall health...

After announcing changes to its existing “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) policy, the Department of Defense (DoD) told CNSNews.com that a member of the military who makes “a statement that he or she is homosexual or bisexual, or words to that effect” still “can be separated” from the armed forces. The policy changes, announced at a Mar. 25 press briefing at the Pentagon, basically make it harder to initiate an official inquiry into whether a soldier is homosexual, raise the authority level needed to discharge a soldier, and set stricter rules on evidence and confidential information used in such inquiries....

Army Secretary John McHugh is backtracking on his promise not to discharge troops who tell him that they are gay. McHugh said in a statement released Thursday that he was "incorrect" when he had said there would be a moratorium on dismissals while the Pentagon conducts a yearlong review on its "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Earlier this week, McHugh had said he wouldn't punish troops who admitted they were gay in private conversations with him, even though they technically violated the law.

The Army secretary said on Wednesday he would not discharge gay personnel who admitted their sexual orientation to him, despite the "don't ask, don't tell" stance that remains official military policy. "What the secretary (of defense) has placed a moratorium on is going forward on discharges," Army Secretary John McHugh told defense reporters. The statement seemed to indicate that some Pentagon leaders had already shifted their stance, at least regarding private admissions by gay troops, although Congress has not yet formally repealed the law banning declared homosexuals.

As President Obama continues his campaign to undermine the moral fabric of our nation and American effectiveness on every front, the proposed repeal of Bill Clinton’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regarding homosexuals in the military has once again become a hot topic of discussion. To be clear, Obama is not pushing for a return to the pre-Clinton days when it was understood that homosexual behavior is incompatible with military service, period, regardless of whether the homosexual military member “told” or not. Obama is instead pressing for homosexuals to be allowed to serve openly in the U.S. Armed Forces. A...

Today Defense Secretary Robert Gates outlined new guidelines for the enforcement of the law preventing open homosexuality in the military. Secretary Gates raised the level of officer authorized to initiate an investigation to carry out fact-finding, and to make a decision to separate a military service member for homosexuality. He also raised the standard of what would constitute "credible information" to begin an inquiry or separation proceeding, and excluded certain confidential information from being used to initiate the discharge of homosexuals from the military. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins made the following comments: "These new guidelines undermine enforcement of...

Some Republicans are dismissing a planned nine-month Pentagon study on gays in the military as biased because it assumes Congress will eventually repeal the 1993 law known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.” GOP lawmakers are likely to use the argument to try to chip away at the credibility of the assessment, which Defense Secretary Robert Gates envisions as the first comprehensive look at the policy in its 17-year lifetime. Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson and U.S. Army Forces Europe commander Gen. Carter Ham were expected to testify Wednesday before a House Armed Services subcommittee for the first time since being...

If homosexuals are allowed to serve in the military, they will be recruiting in the showers, having sex in the barracks, and straights will undergo sensitivity training. Before long, the U.S. may be defended by the sex-obsessed and those who can tolerate kowtowing to them. These are the truths that no one will speak. Forget about ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ (DADT). The issue is NOT about whether those engaging in homosexual sex are, or are not, asked about their ‘sexual preferences.’ The real issue is whether the federal law against sodomy in the armed forces will be abolished either by...

WASHINGTON – The Marine Corps commandant said Wednesday that the ability of U.S. troops to fight and win wars must trump other concerns as the nation considers whether to let gays to serve openly in the military. In testimony before a House committee, Gen. James Conway said he supports a Pentagon assessment to determine how to lift the ban. But he also suggested that civil rights ultimately would have to take a back seat if it meant tampering with the military's ability to protect the country. "That's what they have been built to do under the current construct and I...

The military isn't asking, it's telling. In a letter to Congress last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates notified lawmakers that women will be allowed to serve on submarines for the first time in the Navy's 110-year history, ABC News reported. Congress has 30 days to pass a law to stop or delay the policy, but if it remains silent, women could be aboard Navy submarines in 18 months. The lifting of the ban removes one of the last glass ceilings for women in the military. Unless Congress steps in, women could be serving on Navy submarines for the first time...

Defending ‘Don’t Ask’In the military, open homosexuality harms unit cohesion.  In a February 3 Wall Street Journal op-ed, I argued that the current law forbidding homosexual military members to discuss their sexual orientation ought to remain in place. I based my contention on the importance of non-sexual bonding as the glue of unit cohesion, which is an important contributor to military effectiveness. As expected, I received a great deal of feedback, some positive, some negative. I thought it might be useful to respond to my critics’ most common objections. First, some argued that the studies indicating the importance of cohesion...

Related Story: Mention of gay troops in State of the Union offers little clarity to path ahead WASHINGTON — Military commanders will look for ways to stop enforcing the controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” law but could still take years to fully get rid of it, according to a plan outlined by Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gates said he will establish a panel to examine how to repeal the military’s ban on openly gay troops, with a goal of creating an implementation plan by the end of the year. The...

As expected, President Obama pledged during his State of the Union address to "work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay -snip- The law codified regulations in effect before President Bill Clinton's inauguration, making the historical prohibition against military service for homosexuals a matter of statute. As Secretary of Defense Robert Gates observed in June of last year, "What we have is a law, not a policy or regulation. -snip- Favoritism and double standards are deadly to philia and its associated phenomena—cohesion, morale and discipline—are absolutely critical -snip- The presence of open homosexuals in...

Link Only. To begin after the State of the Union speech.

Early last month, Army Maj. Gen. Tony Cucolo (left) issued General Order #1 as a means of informing those assigned to his Multi-National Division North (a.k.a., "Task Force Marne") that becoming pregnant -- or assisting in the effort -- is one of several types of conduct deemed "prejudicial to the maintenance of good order and discipline" among members of the 22,000-strong task force headquartered in Tikrit, Iraq. In fact, it ranks alongside alcohol, drugs, guns and similar vices on the general's list of prohibited activities.

An Army general in Iraq backed away from his threat today to court martial female soldiers who get pregnant. "I see absolutely no circumstance where I would punish a female soldier by court martial for a violation ... none," Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo III wrote to ABC News in an exclusive statement. " I fully intend to handle these cases through lesser disciplinary action." Cucolo triggered debate, some of it angry, when his Nov. 4 policy forbidding pregnancy among his soldiers became public recently. His policy statement said violation of the rule could be punishable by court martial, and that...

A panel of legal scholars has suggested that Congress remove sodomy as a crime punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a recommendation that could boost efforts to end a ban on gays serving openly in the U.S. military. The Commission on Military Justice recommended that Article 125, which deals with sodomy, be repealed, arguing that “most acts of consensual sodomy committed by consenting military personnel are not prosecuted, creating a perception that prosecution of this sexual behavior is arbitrary.” In its report — dated October 2009 — the commission suggested several changes be made to the UCMJ, including...