Obama's Good Intentions Are Not Enough

As the saying goes, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Thus, Barack Obama may have the best of intentions towards eventually pushing through the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, but in the meanwhile careers and lives of LGBT members of the military continue to be ruined. Meanwhile, Obama fiddles like Nero as Rome figuratively burns. Again, living in this area with a huge military personnel presence and knowing many gays who are in the military, this issue resonates loudly with me and underscores the idiocy of a policy that does NOTHING except enshrine religious based discrimination within the U.S. military - something that is unconstitutional on its face. Aubrey Sarvis has a column in the Huffington Post which looks at the damage being done while Obama dithers with his good intentions:

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Sunday morning on ABC's This Week, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told George Stephanopoulos that they'd been talking about "don't ask, don't tell" in the Pentagon. Admiral Mullen said, "The President has made his strategic intent very clear. . . . I've had discussions with the Joint Chiefs about this. I've done certainly a lot of internal, immediate staff discussions about what the issues would be and . . . ." Sounds like a plan? No, it doesn't, and without a strong push from the White House, it won't be.

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And Chairman Mullen did make it clear on This Week that he knew what the President wanted to accomplish with respect to repealing DADT. "The President has made his strategic intent very clear," he said. "That it's his intent at some point in time to ask Congress to change the law."

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"At some point in time . . . " Now what do you suppose that means? Time is a pretty nebulous notion, and there are an infinite number of points in it. I'd like to know what particular point in time Admiral Mullen and the other deciders at the Pentagon have in mind. This month? This year? Next year? This term? Next term? Somehow, Admiral Mullen didn't convey a sense of urgency to it.

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I'm all for a "measured, deliberate" path, as Admiral Mullen put it, but at some point the White House has to have a plan to get repeal through this Congress. We have to get beyond mere intent. "Intent" is not a plan and it isn't action and so far President Obama hasn't asked Congress to change the law. The President sent his Defense Department budget up to Congress a couple weeks ago and there was no repeal language in it. That budget will be working its way through Congress over the next several months. There's still time to fix it.

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What we don't need is yet another study or national commission to look at repeal. We all know those commissions involve delay and more delay and "kicking it down the road" more that a little bit. I say, put together a working group within 30 days. Have them focus on implementing open service and charge them to report back to the President within 90 days with a detailed plan and a timeline and how to get it done in this Congress.

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Good intentions and warm handwritten notes from the President will not carry the day. They certainly did not save the career of Lieutenant Sandy Tsao who was scheduled for discharge last week. The Arabic speaking Lieutenant Dan Choi is now at risk of being discharged. Sign his petition. Urge Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley to allow Lieutenant Colonel Victor Fehrenbach to keep flying. Sign the petition here. Hundreds more service members will be discharged over the next few months unless Congress and the President, and, yes, the Pentagon act.

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Good intentions are no substitute for the change our service members are counting on, especially those who might like to be relieved from a third or fourth or fifth tour in Iraq or Afghanistan. They really don't care much if the person who relieves them is gay. Would you?

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Do I prefer an Obama administration over a McCain/Palin administration? Most definitely. Do I still have respect for Obama rather than seeing him as a cynical liar who used LGBT Americans? No I do not, nor will I believe Obama in the future when he makes nice sounding pro-gay statements. The ONLY way he can regain my respect and trust is to DELIVER on his campaign promises.