At Pentagon, 'don't ask, don't tell' is back, but under heavy guard
| Washington
Although "don鈥檛 ask, don鈥檛 tell" is back and is once again the law over at the Pentagon, throwing troops out of the US military on the basis of their sexual orientation has become even more difficult on the heels of a new Pentagon policy change announced Thursday.
Under orders from Defense Secretary Robert Gates, now only a small handful of officials, including the secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, can decide whether or not to discharge service members under the law that prohibits openly gay service members from being in the military. Any such moves now require their 鈥減ersonal approval.鈥� They must further do this 鈥渋n coordination鈥� with the Pentagon鈥檚 top lawyer, Jeh Johnson, and Clifford Stanley, undersecretary of defense for personnel.
Because all of these officials are political appointees of President Obama, who has made it clear that he wants to see the ban lifted, the move is likely to slow any practical enforcement of DADT policy.
鈥淭he writing on the wall is that this policy is going to be repealed,鈥� says Tim Haggerty, a professor who studies the social impact of war and directs the Humanities Scholars Program at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. 鈥淚t strikes me as a means of greatly diminishing the number of cases that can be reviewed.鈥�
Pentagon officials denied this was the case at a press conference on Thursday. 鈥淵ou all want to find something between the lines here that really isn鈥檛 here,鈥� said a senior Pentagon official who was authorized to speak on condition of anonymity. 鈥淚t is what it is.鈥�
When reporters pointed out that the bar now seems higher to remove gay service members under don鈥檛 ask, don鈥檛 tell, particularly since the secretaries of the services are generally busy with many other duties, the official said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not raising or lowering the bar. The bar has always been high, but we鈥檙e going to put the separation authority in fewer, more senior hands who will be most up to date on this changing legal landscape.鈥� He added, 鈥淚t is what it is.鈥�
Despite the official's reluctance to draw any conclusions for the press about the underlying meaning of the Pentagon's latest directive, the ping-pong-like legal changes that resulted from court rulings this month have made a few things clear at the Pentagon.
One is that there will be memos 鈥� lots of them. 鈥淚t is certainly not desirable to have to send out as many as three of these in the course of a week and a half,鈥� said the Pentagon official, in a tone of mock exasperation, as he brandished the memo.
More seriously, however, defense officials acknowledged that during the eight days in which the ban was essentially overturned, there was scant evidence of the sort of 鈥渋mmediate harm鈥� of which defense officials warned in papers asking the courts to keep the ban in place for the sake of an orderly transition.
The senior Pentagon official on Thursday added that the eight-day period also highlighted for the Pentagon the fact that if the 鈥渓aw changes suddenly, the first place you鈥檒l see an issue鈥� will be in recruiting centers around the country.
Throughout the course of the past week, there were reports of gay soldiers who had been removed from the US military under DADT policy returning to recruiting centers to reenlist. It is uncertain what will happen to their cases now, Pentagon officials say. 鈥淲e are clearly in a legally uncertain environment,鈥� said the official.
