He brings up a good point -- if Bush wants to increase the size of the military and not reinstate the draft, something's got to give.
Last year I held a number of meetings with gay soldiers and marines, including some with combat experience in Iraq, and an openly gay senior sailor who was serving effectively as a member of a nuclear submarine crew. These conversations showed me just how much the military has changed, and that gays and lesbians can be accepted by their peers.
This perception is supported by a new Zogby poll of more than 500 service members returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, three quarters of whom said they were comfortable interacting with gay people. And 24 foreign nations, including Israel, Britain and other allies in the fight against terrorism, let gays serve openly, with none reporting morale or recruitment problems.
I now believe that if gay men and lesbians served openly in the United States military, they would not undermine the efficacy of the armed forces. Our military has been stretched thin by our deployments in the Middle East, and we must welcome the service of any American who is willing and able to do the job.
Of course, Bush would have one helluva time explaining the need to embrace gays as equals in society to the bible banging idiots who are his only remaining supporters.
But he wants to send more troops to Iraq and they've got to come from somewhere. You can spend more money than you bring in -- and Bush's record deficits show he's good at it -- but you can't deploy more forces than you have.
Bush is at a point where nothing he does will make very many people happy. That's why he's sending more troops without any real idea of what they'll do (it's called a 'strategy,' George) -- it's a Hail Mary.
But if you're already committed to doing something that's going to piss a lot of people off, you might as well do the right thing at the same time -- people are going to be pissed off anyway.
Tags: news | politics | Military | Bush | iraq | war | gay | religious right | John Shalikashvili
