The Marine commandant says he opposes ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” because allowing openly gay Marines to serve could get leathernecks killed.
As the Pentagon’s own Stars and Stripes newspaper reports:
Ultimately, the voices of forward-fighting combat Marines who worried about unit cohesion in the Pentagon’s survey swayed Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos’ attention more than any other data point, leading him to recommend that Congress not repeal the law banning openly gay Americans from military service.
“Mistakes and inattention or distractions cost Marines lives,” he said. “That’s the currency of this fight. I take that very, very seriously,” he added. “I don’t want to lose any Marines to the distraction. I don’t want to have any Marines that I’m visiting at Bethesda [National Naval Medical Center, in Maryland] with no legs be the result of any type of distraction.”
Remember the good old days? When troops were afraid of Russians?