06 March 2010

McPeak? McBIGOT is more like it.

the NYTimesSlimes has an OpEd from Former Air Force Chief of Staff Merrill McPeak. (i link to it but i'll burn in the fiery depths of hades b4 i'll quote from it...)

Aaron Belkin does a very good job of dismantling the homophobia, bigotry and lies (especially regarding so-called "unit cohesion") in his piece at HuffPost. Go there to read the whole article, but some of the best follows (emphasis added):

But the way to have an enlightened public conversation is to offer reasoned claims based on evidence and research, and to characterize and evaluate opposing arguments honestly. McPeak does no such thing.


snip

The Flag and General Officers heard testimony from gay and straight service members who told them that in most cases, troops who acknowledge that they are gay do not encounter difficulties with their peers. When gay service members hide their identities, however, everyone in the unit knows that they are keeping a secret. That dynamic can be the source of bullying, tension and a decrease in cohesion.

Indeed, there are at least twenty studies, many written by the military's own researchers, which find that at very least, gay and lesbian troops do not harm cohesion and readiness. So when McPeak claims that "advocates for gays in the service have by and large avoided a discussion of unit cohesion," it is not quite clear that his views are informed by evidence.


McPeak offers an extended financial analysis explaining why the cost of firing gays and lesbians is trivial. It is true that the military spends only a fraction of its budget firing gay and lesbian troops. A panel including military professors and a former Secretary of Defense found that conservatively, the cost to implement "don't ask, don't tell" from 1994 through 2004 was about $360 million. That estimate did not include a number of big-ticket items, and only covered a decade.

For example, the TWENTY FIVE MILLION DOLLARS to train Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach...That's ONE person to be dismissed under dadt. One should ponder the total cost of training of the more than 13,500 troops dismissed under dadt since 1994?

go read the whole article, if i dissect it any more, someone will have to call 911 for me.


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