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It took Judge Virginia Phillips of the U.S. District Court in Riverside, Calif. to save us from ourselves. On Oct. 12, Phillips stopped the military’s enforcement of “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT). For now at least, no longer will our soldiers be kicked out of the military for the “crime” of being gay. During a time when we are still sending troops to fight in Afghanistan and have 50,000 “advisers” facing live fire in Iraq, it seems incredible we needed the court to step in and end the fiasco of DADT.
History will condemn us as silly and petty people for tossing out 13,000 otherwise eminently qualified troops during a time of war simply because we didn’t approve of their sexual orientation. But there it is, and we should all stand ashamed — President Obama for never quite being able to have the courage to end it all with one stroke of his pen; the Pentagon brass that is unable to do what many of our western allies did long ago; the pusillanimous Congress that is more concerned with re-election than doing what is morally right; and ourselves for worrying more about non-existent issues such as the president’s birth certificate than standing behind all of our soldiers. The next time you put that “Support the Troops” bumper sticker on your car, make it “Support All the Troops.”
There will be some irate letters coming in to newspaper editors across the land. I am sure you will see a couple from the usual suspects in our newspaper’s Letters to the Editor section. They will rant about liberal judges overstepping their authority and the dissolution of morale in our armed forces during a time of war. I would rather have seen the president and members of both parties in Congress with the cooperation of the Pentagon end this injustice then have the court have to step in. The president had his chance and he fumbled it away. He kept waiting for the ridiculous poll results from a survey of military menbers that was scheduled to be revealed last December. How would you like to depend on a poll of the majority to protect your minority rights? Do you think the South would have ever integrated its schools if we waited for a favorable poll to take the action?
Right behind the president in ranking the shameful actions of politicians has been his opponent in the 2008 presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain. His bravery and devotion to the military is unquestioned, but he is trapped in a cocoon of the past. He continues to claim this is the wrong time to stop DADT because we are at war. But that is why this is exactly the right time to end this sham.
Our military is stretched thin. The suicide rate among soldiers is alarmingly high as troops are rotated into harm’s way three, four and even five times. We need every able-bodied soldier we can get and damn worrying about their sexual orientation. McCain knows that this war against terror is a war without a real end in sight. When he implies that ending DADT might be OK after the war is over, he is being totally disingenuous because he is suggesting practically it will never be OK to end DADT.
From a political standpoint, Phillips’ action could not have come at a worse time for the reeling Democrats. The president was obligated not to wait for the courts to step in. Ending DADT was one of the issues he ran on. Instead, he will get no credit, nor should he, with the court injunction against enforcement of the law. In fact, the court action has placed the president directly in the crosshairs on the issue. He will fall back on precedent in allowing his Justice Department appeal the ruling and thus make his betrayal of his gay supporters clear once and for all.
He could have said, precedent be damned and let the ruling stand not worrying about whether he incurs the wrath of the self-righteous right. Obama has assured that he will get no political benefits from the end of DADT from either side on the issue. I like this president. I think polls showing that the public thinks he is no better a president than his predecessor, George W. Bush, are a sad commentary on the memory loss of the American public. But I think it is almost delicious revenge that Mr. Obama finds himself on the hot seat on DADT. To use an old quote, the president’s pigeons have come home to roost.
Some, even in the gay community, argue it would be better in the long run if the courts stayed out of the DADT and gay marriage issues, that it would be far better if we waited for the Pentagon to use their little poll of the soldiers to save face and end DADT on its own, and that it would be far better if we allowed each state to legalize gay marriage, as some have already done.
I remember William Faulkner, the great author from Oxford, Miss. making the same argument about civil rights. But there came a time after 200 years of racial discrimination where the courts have to force open the schoolhouse door. So it is that with every passing day where gay soldiers are fighting and facing death on the battlefield alongside their straight buddies, there comes a time when justice must prevail. There comes a time when a judge must say enough is enough.
That time came last week. SPR
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