That’s my understanding as well, but you can imagine that the DOD will be under great pressure to rapidly change the policy.
The libs know that Obama is the CIC. We do too. We need a new CIC, asap.
I totally agree, but there’s this one great caveat. It’s a lot harder to exert pressure when your approval numbers are sinking like the Titanic, and your party got its butt handed to it on a plate in the last election. We’ve just got to hope Obama is sufficiently weakened to give us an opening going forward. It’s dicey, to be sure, but there are a lot of encouraging signs on our side. It’s ain’t over till it’s over, and the DoD hasn’t lifted DADT yet. Let us pray they never do.
Yes, but you know, have any of you read this? Is it legit?
Roy G. Callahan, USN, Ret.
1529 NW 143rd Street
Gainesville, Florida 32606
Tel: (352) 332-9144
Fax: (352) 332-9144
Call6603@Bellsouth.net
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Open letter to Congress on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell:
Don’t ask, Don’t tell is in the news again. Given the staggering level of false information, gross ignorance, or intentional misdirection on the facts, it is time to set the record straight.
Until the Uniform Code of Military Justice was enacted the Army and Navy operated under laws derived directly from the British Articles of War, which had been in force since the revolutionary war. World War II was the turning point because it produced an astonishing 2 million Courts Martials. More than 100 servicemen were executed and 45,000 went to prison. When a public outcry ensued Congress created the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).
President Truman signed the legislation on May 5, 1950. More than 15 years before the Supreme Court’s historic Miranda decision, the code gave service members the right to remain silent and to be informed that any statement could be used against them at court-martial. It also provided free military defense counsel in the most serious court-martial trials. The code expanded protections for service members.
Don’t Ask – Don’t Tell” bars military commanders from “asking about sexual orientation” absent any evidence of wrongdoing associated with military code. It also bars gay service members from “telling their sexual orientation,” or serving in the open. This policy does not make openly serving in the military legal for gays.
Defense Secretary Gates lied when he said, “Failing to repeal the law (DADT) prohibiting openly gay and lesbian people from serving in the military leaves the services vulnerable to the possibility the courts will order an immediate and likely chaotic end to the policy. My greatest worry will be that we are at the mercy of the courts and all of the lack of predictability that that entails.”
Gates’ lie stems from the fact that serving openly in the military as a gay was illegal before Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT). DADT did not make open service in the military legal for gays, it made it legal to serve in the closet, not in the open. Repealing DADT will not make serving openly in the military legal for gays, quite the opposite - it returns the issue to long-standing military code on the matter. Contrary to popular belief, the civilian courts have NO constitutional authority or power over the military or military policy so they have no authority to dictate military code.
If DADT were repealed, long-standing military code denying gays the right to serve in the military in or out of the closet would return as the law of the land. DADT did not alter military code. It stopped the aggressive pursuit and prosecution of gays in the military, by military commanders. The UCMJ reads as follows…
“(a) Any person subject to this chapter who engages in unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal is guilty of sodomy. Penetration, however slight, is sufficient to complete the offense.
(b) Any person found guilty of sodomy shall be punished, as a court-martial may direct.”
The UCMJ allows NO gays in the military in the open or otherwise. Consequently, repealing DADT will NOT make openly serving in the military legal for gays.
Furthermore, civilian courts have no authority over the US Military or military code. Congress is the only branch of government that has the constitutional authority of military oversight and Congress did not pass DADT. It is refusing to review or repeal DADT at present and neither the judicial nor the executive branch has any constitutional authority on the subject.
I am concerned that Secretary Gates does not know what the constitution says on this matter or he’s a political animal that does not care. It is obvious he does not care that analysis of a FY 2009 study found that of all the sexual assaults in the military, 8.2% of them were same-sex in nature. Comparing that to the general civilian population, homosexuals in the military are three times more likely to commit sexual assaults relative to their population. Most of these assaults were men fondling or attempting oral sex on other men while the victim slept or was intoxicated.
Furthermore, a September 2010, CDC fact sheet shows men having sex with men account for 48% of all HIV cases in the United States. While men having sex with men account for only 4% of the entire population, they are 44 times more likely to be diagnosed with HIV. In setting public policy, both commanders and politicians must remember that these are blood-borne diseases. What will commanders do about blood transfusions on the battlefield?
The armed forces represent the last bastion of values and discipline not completely subject to the socialist/secular mantra. President Barack Hussein Obama is the commander in chief because he is president. He is also the chief law enforcement officer in this country. He is supposed to enforce the law, not make it.
Congress abrogated its responsibilities and got stupid when it allowed President Clinton who had no morals, ethics or standards to impose Don’t Ask Don’t Tell on the armed forces. If the Constitution and Rule of Law mean anything Congress is responsible for rewriting the Uniform Code of Military Justice if Obama is going to have his way allowing queers to serve.
In closing, I agree with Marine Corps Commandant James Conway who told Congress “At this point, I think that the current policy works,” Conway said. “My best military advice to this committee, to the secretary, to the president would be to keep the law such as it is.
If you have ethics, morals, or standards I expect you to uphold your oath of office. It is Congresses responsibility to determine military law, policy and standards, not Obama’s or the courts. Therefore, I expect you to stop Obama and his fellow travelers and vote accordingly.
Remember, you work for me
Yours in the Bill of Rights,
Roy G. Callahan
Copy to: Florida Representatives, Commandant of the Marine Corps, et al