Left I on the News

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified today that:

"I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens. For me, it comes down to integrity – theirs as individuals and ours as an institution."

For starters, Mike, it's not all about you. We don't really care about you being "troubled"; the issue is equality before the law for a large group of people.

But that "being forced to lie" and not being able to have "integrity"? Apparently it's not that big a deal:

The comments...set the stage for the Defense Department's yearlong study into how the ban can be repealed without causing a major upheaval in the military.

A yearlong study! You know, we're not talking about having to convert men's barracks into co-ed barracks or something complicated. We're actually talking about people who are already in the military and just stopping kicking them out! Does that really require more than one minute's study, much less one year?

I'll be interested to hear if any of the Senators quizzing Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked the obvious question - if you and your boss (Obama) are so committed to this, why doesn't Obama just suspend this policy today?