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Critics of gay ban repeal hit at Gates, Mullen

Socially conservative House members on Wednesday echoed their Senate colleagues’ criticism of the Pentagon’s proposal to repeal the military’s ban on open service by gays, with the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee expressing “serious concerns” about overturning the ban during wartime and calling for repeal without providing input from the four service chiefs.

“Congress deserves to see from the services concrete, in-depth evidence that readiness concerns require a change and that such a change would not degrade wartime military readiness in any measurable, significant way,” said Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., addressing Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen. “Many of us on this committee have serious concerns with putting our men and women in uniform through such a divisive debate while they are fighting two wars.”

And, McKeon added later, “this position in support of repeal comes before your service chiefs have had the opportunity to conduct an in-depth review of the impact a repeal would have on military readiness. It seems that your path places the cart before the horse.”

Mullen replied that he was not speaking for the chiefs when he stunned the Senate Armed Services Committee the previous day by saying that “it is my personal and professional belief that allowing homosexuals to serve openly would be the right thing to do” and that he backed Gates’ announcement — made minutes earlier at the same hearing — that he “fully supports” President Obama’s call for repeal.

Mullen told the House committee that he’d discussed the issue with the service chiefs “at considerable length” and that “they will have the opportunity” to voice their views. Gates has ordered two internal reviews: a 45-day effort to examine ways to enforce the law in a “fairer manner,” and a review that will take much of the year to examine all aspects of repeal’s potential impact on the force.

McKeon wasn’t alone. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., also wanted to know whether the two leaders had queried the service chiefs. Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, R-Calif., a former Marine Corps lieutenant who served three combat tours and currently is a captain in the Marine Forces Reserve, said that rather than concentrating on “social issues” in the military, he’d rather have a full committee hearing on roadside bombs and the effectiveness of the Pentagon’s countering efforts.

Hunter left no doubt about his feelings on open service by gays, however, during an interview the previous day on National Public Radio, when he argued that repeal would damage unit cohesiveness, adding, “I think that bond is broken if you open up the military to transgenders, to hermaphrodites, to gays and lesbians.”

Their objections underlined the stiff fight repeal will face in Congress and particularly in the committee, where its chairman, Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., has also announced that he is personally opposed to repeal, telling C-SPAN on Jan. 15 that repeal would cause “disruption” during a time of war.

Two other Democrats voiced support for the stance of Mullen and Gates during the hearing, which was mostly focused on the Pentagon’s proposed 2011 spending plan and its concurrently released Quadrennial Defense Review.

Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., took exception to McKeon’s concern.

“We debated while we were in Vietnam whether we thought we should be in Vietnam,” Snyder said. “I know for a fact that this debate went on in March of ’03 when our troops went into Iraq. The debate continues. People don't lose their … ability to debate policy issues because they're in the military at a time of war. So … I think that that is a red herring.”

Gates chimed in at this point, referring to the longer-range review he’s ordered up. One of its purposes, he said, “is precisely so we can understand not just the views and concerns of the chiefs, but of our military people and their families. And the impact [of] unit cohesion, on morale, on retention, so we understand what these things are so we get some facts into this debate — or at least some data that we think is reliable and objective.”

Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., a former Army captain and Iraq war veteran who is lead sponsor on a House bill to repeal the law that bans military service by gays, lauded the initiative but questioned why the review will take a year.

Gates said he wants it done before year’s end but added, “The reality is there are a lot of assertions associated with this about what people believe and what they don’t believe, and what attitudes are and what they aren’t. As the chairman [Mullen] said yesterday, we just don’t know the facts. And so for us, it’s a dual-purpose review.”

Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., a retired three-star vice admiral, expressed support for the Gates-Mullen stance and asked Gates whether Obama could effectively overturn the 1993 law by an executive order invoking the “stop-loss” authority employed most recently to involuntarily extend tens of thousands of service members, most of them for service in Iraq and Afghanistan, and being nearly completely phased out by March 2011.

Gates said no, citing a Pentagon general counsel determination that the president does not have the authority to do so. That runs counter to a determination by lawyers at the pro-gay think tank The Palm Center, whose military law experts believe that the president could issue such an order.

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