U.S Military Allies: DADT Hurts United States

The psychos over at FRC and similar professional Christian organizations are hysterically bleating that a repeal of DADT will hurt the U.S. military's readiness and ability to meet engagements overseas. Naturally, none of these organizations have anyone who has legitimate expertise in this area, but then facts and truthfulness are never important to these folks. In contrast, military leaders from military units of U.S. allies sate on the record that DADT is hurting U.S. military readiness and creating situations where U.S. allies refuse to participate in peace keeping and other missions along side U.S. troops. Why? Because foreign troops don't want to work with religious bigots and homophobes - the pillars behind the DADT policy. In a Politico op-ed piece Maj. Peter Kees Hamstra of the Royal Dutch Army, Leif Ohlson of the Swedish Armed Forces, and Lt. Com. Craig Jones, British Royal Navy [Ret.] (pictured above) spell out this phenomenon. Somehow, I suspect these men have far more legitimate military expertise than Elaine Donnelly (who has never been in the military) and Peter Sprigg of FRC (who likewise has never seen military service). Here are some column highlights:
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As openly gay officers with decades of combined service experience in the British, Dutch and Swedish armed forces, we are closely watching U.S. developments around the repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell." We were just in Washington at a Brookings Institution/Palm Center conference, where representatives from the world's militaries discussed this matter.
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Though we maintain a respect for the American people, their military and their political process, we share a sense of puzzlement — and a sort of shock — at the rhetoric we heard surrounding "Don't ask, don't tell."
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[I]t is also true that U.S. military power depends, in most cases, on an international coalition of partners. Members of Congress don't always seem to appreciate that America's allies are put off in serious ways by the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy. For example, units of our own or other armed forces have refused to deploy in some joint operations with U.S. forces because gay service members would not work with the Americans — for fear of hostile reactions. In addition to protecting our men and women from enemy combatants, we must also protect them from anti-gay and anti-lesbian discrimination.
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Moral opposition to homosexuality, while real, is just not allowed to undercut our militaries' missions. Nor do we think it will have any impact on yours after you repeal "Don't ask, don't tell."
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This is an important point because many Americans seem to believe that ending anti-gay discrimination in European and Israeli militaries faced no resistance because our cultures are more tolerant. In fact, our polls, rhetoric and even threats of mass resignations were quite similar to the continuing resistance in America. Yet none of the doomsday scenarios came true.
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According to research and assessments of our transitions, the new policies had no negative impact on military readiness. Another dimension missing from the congressional debate is how the closet harms gay troops. We know this from personal experience. Unit cohesion is paramount, and that's why the public debate about "Don't ask, don't tell" has focused on this topic. But the impact of discrimination on gay troops matters as well — and we have not heard members of Congress discuss this.
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We are also puzzled about repeated claims we heard in Washington about the need for more research on "Don't ask, don't tell." There is more than enough on-the-ground experience, as well as serious social science research, showing what will happen when the U.S. military allow gays and lesbians to utter the words "I am gay" without getting fired.
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We are confident that, despite the unique nature of each culture and military, you will have a similar experience to ours — which is that ending discrimination against gay troops was a giant nothing.
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Washington must project force like no other nation. But the military is also about projecting values — and the discriminatory "Don't ask, don't tell" policy undercuts America's commitment to the democratic values of fairness and equality under the law. The policy puts you in the company of Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China and Yemen. Is that the kind of company you want to keep?