Even Virginian Pilot Calls for DADT to End NOW

It's not often that I agree with the local newspapers in this area which generally provide lousy news coverage of anything other than local news - and even that's less than wonderful. Much of the national news coverage is a day or more old by the time it appears locally. And in the op-ed pages, all too often the editorial boards seem to be afraid of incurring the wrath of the knuckle draggers in such plentiful abundance throughout the region. But once in a while the editorial boards get it right. Today's Virginian Pilot main editorial is a case in point. It calls for enforcement of DADT to end now, today. It also chides Obama for stepping in the way of the ruling of Judge Virginia Phillips in Log Cabin Republicans v. United States. Too many careers of honorable service members have been destroyed already and too many needed service members have been expelled to stroke the egos of religious bigots who are the ones behind DADT in the first place. It's a sad day when the Virginian Pilot is more progressive than a Democrat in the White House. Here are a few key highlights:
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Ideally, this dispute should be resolved by Congress, not the courts. The House voted to repeal the ban this spring, but the Senate bungled its response amid partisan bickering unrelated to the substance of the issue.
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Congress can revisit that vote when it reconvenes after the elections. In the meantime, the Obama administration should have stepped aside, rather than delay the inevitable with further court battles.
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Between 1997 and 2008, more than 10,500 service members were discharged under "don't ask, don't tell." A 2005 Government Accountability Office report found that more than 750 men and women drummed out in the policy's first 10 years possessed skills defined as critical, including expertise in Arabic and other languages.
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[D]riving good, qualified soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines out of the military solely because of their sexual orientation - at wartime or any other time - infringes on their fundamental rights and is against America's best interests. That practice should end now.