The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy has claimed another American hero. Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, an F-15E Strike Eagle with nine Air Medals, including one for valor for assaulting an Iraqi ambush position while under heavy anti-aircraft fire has been discharged for liking men instead of women.
As with a number of other principles, changing this insidious policy has been put on the back burner by the Obama Administration. Fehrenbach, who was born on an Air Force base and calls the Air Force his life, has been told that he is a danger to his unit and its morale. Of course, the soldiers who he protected from an ambush by attacking that enemy position were not particularly interested in the time who he dated. The military now appears to believe that it would have been better not to have him in the airplane at all so heterosexual soldiers could die without the corrupting influence of a homosexual.
His career and those of other gay soldiers, sailors, and air personnel is simply not a priority at this time.
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Oh, and one of my good friends was kicked out of the military for being raped (attempted rape) by a “straight” married airman. No one had ever questioned his sexuality since he kept it to himself, but working in close quarters the perpetrator began to suspect my friend was gay. Once he convinced himself my friend was gay, he tried to sexually assault him. When my friend reported the attack to his command, he was kicked out for being gay. Three cheers for America.
Ann, maybe you should get your facts straight. The “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy has nothing to do with telling. If people think you are gay, they can authorize an investigation. Most gays in the military go to great lengths to hide their sexual orientation, I know because I have friends who are gay who also served. The argument against gays serving openly in the military is just straight up bigotry. Ignorant people are afraid that our God fearing Christian soldiers will catch “the gay” if they live in close contact with these immoral sinners. Gays have served in militaries since the dawn of mankind, playing significant parts in every major American war. Anyone who has served in the military who isn’t infected with religious/social intolerance will give you the honest-to-God objective opinion: gays can be equal to or even better than their straight counterparts. I can’t tell you how many dumbass straight Marines I knew who did the following things: multiple DUIs, having kids every year and a half and bitching about family issues, STDs (its not just those deviant gays that can get them), females getting pregnant, males getting their unmarried girlfriends/one night stands pregnant, etc. I could go on and on about the incredible disruptions straight people caused within the military that I experienced in just my small time in the military. The funny thing is, the only gay airmen/Marines I know were some of the best servicemen I have ever met. In nearly every case, I’d rather have them over the whole lot of straight servicemen. This is, of course, all anecdotal, but the threat of open homosexuals to unit order and discipline is just one big fat myth put forth by bigots.
Ann:
I hope actually, that republicans of the Sarah Palin/John McCain type do not win. They will be worse for the country than Obama. Most republicans are like Lindsey Graham, soft and squishy and just as progressive as Obama.
They have no philosophical base from which to govern. Bush started all this bail-out crapola and should be a harbinger for republicans about how we should not govern.
You can spout all the anti-Obama rhetoric you want but republicans of the current vein will be no better. You will be trading winesaps for macintosh.
Jesus: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Ann: Kill them all. I hate them all.
God bless you Ann, you’ll need it while being consumed in the everlasting fire.
GWLawSchoolMom writes that Obama “is turning out to be pretty cowardly. He is afraid to stand up to the conservative democrats.” I too am extremely disappointed in Obama, but I am not so sure about his motivation; in fact, I’m stumped as to what it is. He might be cowardly, but I can think of other possibilities. One is that he is a conservative Democrat, and he misled us during the campaign (although he gave us a hint when he voted to give the telecoms immunity). Another possibility is that his primary goal is to bring the nation together, or, to put it in a less favorable way, to get everyone to like him. This in turn could have more than one motivation: to make the nation a less combative place, or to win by a landslide in 2012. After all, he has the left sewn up: what are we going to do if we feel that he has betrayed us — vote Republican?
I am afraid that Obama, like Clinton, will name a moderate to the Supreme Court, which could move the Court to the right, given that the moderate would replace Souter. Reagan and the two Bushes put right-wing extremists on the Court, but Democrats just don’t play as tough.
Ann,
The greatest of the ancient warriors, the Spartans, all had male lovers. Throughout history there have been gay warriors, perhaps Alexander the Great might stir your memory. You dishonor our troops with your homophobia and you dishonor America. As a homophobe, you are probably a fundamentalist Christian to boot. Jesus never talked about homosexuality. In the Torah it was described as an abomination, on the same level as eating pork. Jesus was against divorce, but the Bible Belt States lead the nation in divorce. Perhaps if you really tried to understand Jesus message than you’d realize Republicans are against most of what he preached, but to do that you might actually have to think, or really work on your spirituality, it’s so much easier hating and shredding the Golden Rule, which you do so well. Have a blessed day.
Wow,
96 to 4 on sticking it to Obama on closing Gitmo.
Car manufacturers bankrupt after billions stuck into them to protect union jobs.
Iran launching a long range missile after Obama pleads to talk to them.
Hamas says Obama is a liar and not to be trusted.
Israelis now overwhelmingly believe Obama is NOT GOOD for the safety and security of Israel.
Hezbollah announces they will resume border attacks until Obama cuts Israel off.
Russia warns Obama not to send America down the path they mistakenly took.
China says “no more buying our debt”.
Generic ballot surveys of both Rasmussen & Gallup now show Republicans have moved 11 points or more up and are now tied with Democrats – beating them on almost every issue.
Heck, this is just 3 minutes of thought. I could go on for a couple of pages but you all get the drift – Obama is in DEEP DEEP trouble and sending America into even deeper trouble. This keeps up and the GOP will get back the House & Senate in 2010.
Mike Spindell, I am calling the white house tomorrow and congratulating them on keeping the policy.
We don’t need to upset and demoralize half the military to appease 3% of them do we? Of course not.
So you want to keep the 12,500 gays & lesbians (over 10 years) that broke the don’t ask don’t tell policy and lose perhaps hundreds of thousands that either 1) won’t re-up or 2) enlist in the first place.
Come on; stop trying to ruin the US Military to appease a small but vocal voting block. Oh ya, that’s right. Democrats NEED every little voting block they have accumulated, whether its the gays, lesbians, unions, teachers, welfare recipients, the unemployed, blacks, etc. or you see THEY WOULD NEVER WIN ANY ELECTIONS!
Why didn’t he honor the don’t ask don’t tell policy. He THOUGHT Obama was going to reverse the policy and guess what……..Obama ain’t gonna! He got elected – he doesn’t need the gays anymore.
Good point, Mike S. Thanks for the suggestion.
I have already called the White house in protest to let the president know that even though I’m not gay, this is stupid and intolerable. I suggest everyone else who is outraged does the same. They are polite and take your full statement. While I’ve always been for gay rights, the Prop 8 thing in California made me realize this should be a deal or no deal issue in terms of our leaders.
The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was intended as a temporary compromise to ignorance and idiocy. Since its adoption a new generation has come of age and joined the military. The remaining idiots among them just need to deal with it. That the policy survived the Bush administration is also an example of how Dick Cheney has managed to combine physical cowardice and moral cowardice in a single package. As the parent of a gay child, he certainly understands the humiliation and degradation this policy represents to the gay community. Yet the chief warrior in the war on terror never had the gumption to even stand up for the rights of his own child. Of course, I suppose there was no more chance that any of Mr. Cheney’s children would choose to serve than that any of Mr. Bush’s offspring would do so.
This is so screwed up for all the reasons mentioned above. The army puts people back into a battlefield who are suffering from PTSD. I know a man who while back home, kept waking up at night trying to strangle his wife, that is when he wasn’t running down the middle of the road. He was sent back for another tour. We have more private contractors than soldiers working on our wars. These people are dangerous to our troops and civilians. We do both these things which are incredibly destructive because we don’t really have enough people to conduct our imperial plans. So why is it that we’re getting rid of people who are gay and lesbian, again?
NF:
“Chicken hawks like Cheney should not be disparaging the bravery of any member of the military, gay or straight.”
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Bravery knows no gender nor sexual orientation.
The ironic thing is that there are a lot of Republicans and conservative Democrats out there against changing the policy and yet none of them has ever served in the military, none has ever put their life on the line to protect this country…
Chicken hawks like Cheney should not be disparaging the bravery of any member of the military, gay or straight
I saw this last night on Rachel Maddow. There was a time when the excuse that integration would lead to disruption in the unit held up and allowing women to serve alongside men would also be disruptive. They were right, it was disruptive to the unit. And everyone survived. The unit adjusted. The system allowed for men and women to serve and advance regardless of race or gender. There was a time when Colin Powell could not have served alongside white men and he rose to become chairman of the joint chiefs.
This is the perfect opportunity for the White House to stand up and admit that don’t ask- don’t tell” does not work and to admit that gays and lesbians can serve and make a significant contribution and that their gender preferences have nothing to do with their suitability for what job they choose to perform in life.
Once again, I don’t think that President Obama will act to right this horrible wrong. He is turning out to be pretty cowardly. He is afraid to stand up to the conservative democrats, to do the right thing when it comes to prosecution of war crimes, to close Gitmo and now this.
His inexperience is showing and he is turning out not to be much of a leader but rather a pretty decent manager.
No one elected him to be CEO, we needed a President, one with real leadership skills and one who could do more than make pretty campaign promises.
What do they call a leader who can’t get anyone to follow? Just a guy taking a walk.
jim:
“what a country!”
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The best money can buy!!
what a country!
What are they afraid of, that they are going to play army, and all get blown away. Thats the casualty.
Hey JT, who needs war heroes except during wartime? Oops we are at war. Disregard.