Another part of the gays-in-the-military wedge

Last month I argued that the practice of discharging highly-trained military linguists, responsible for translating intercepts that may include terrorist plots, because of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy is a classic wedge issue. Most Americans, I believe, would never support the policy as it relates to linguists. Even the most ardent right-wing lunatic would rather let a gay military linguist save his or her life than be dead while sticking to homophobic principles.

The General Accountability Office pointed to another similar opportunity on this issue yesterday — cost.

Hundreds of highly skilled troops, including many translators, have left the armed forces because of the Pentagon’s rules on gays, at a cost of nearly $200 million, the first congressional study on the impact of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy says.

The estimated cost was for recruiting and training replacements from 1994 through 2003 for the 9,488 troops discharged from the Army, Navy, Air Force or Marine Corps because of the policy, the General Accountability Office estimated.

This is only an estimate based on recruiting and training costs, and doesn’t even include the additional costs associated with discharging the officers.

So, what we have here is a situation in which the military is dismissing highly-trained volunteers, during a war, many of whom have specialized training in languages such as Arabic, Farsi, Korean, and Mandarin, at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars. Who on earth is prepared to defend such lunacy? It’s a policy that puts American lives in jeopardy, leaves potential terrorist warnings untranslated, and costs a bundle.

Adding insult to injury, the GAO report, in addition to explaining the financial costs, pointed to the policy’s negative effect on military readiness.

Lawmakers called Thursday for an end to the Pentagon’s ban on gays in the military, citing findings in a government report that the prohibition hurts recruiting and retention even as the war in Iraq strains the military’s ability to maintain its troop strength.

At least one lawmaker has seen enough.

On Thursday, Rep. Martin T. Meehan (D-Mass.) prepared to offer a bill that would end the Pentagon’s 12-year-old policy, known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

“The conventional justification for ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ has been that allowing gays to serve undermines military readiness,” Meehan said. “Now we have the numbers to prove that the policy itself is undermining our military readiness.”

As a strategic issue, I still believe Meehan should start with a proposal to amend the 12-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” law to make an exception for linguists, saying that the demands of a war on terror make the revision necessary. The GOP won’t go for a total drop of the nonsensical policy, but would have an impossible task on their hands in trying to defend the policy on linguists, whom they desperately need, regardless of sexual orientation. If an exception can be made, it’s only a matter of time before the wedge brings the scam down altogether.

Americans should have a chance to see who’s willing to put a nonsensical culture war above national security.