Dear President Obama,

[dgibby]

About that little DADT problem, as you know, the Pentagon insists that GLBT service members who violate DADT must be discharged from the Military, as their continued service is "prejudicial to good order and discipline".

As a straight, retired senior USN officer, respectfully, I. BEG. TO. DIFFER.,Sir.

Things I found to be prejudicial to good order and discipline during my service include, but are not limited to the following:

Frequent, extended,and multiple deployments, especially to a combat zone.

Back door draft, aka, Operation Stop Loss.

Inadequate pay and benefits, requiring military families to rely on programs such as WIC and Food Stamps.

Lack of appropriate equipment, such as up armored vehicles, protective vests and helmets, etc.

An overwhelmed VA Health Care System.

The fear that, as a vet, I have an excellent chance of ending up homeless upon my return from service.

Lowering enlistment standards in order to meet quotas.

Being sent back to a war zone contrary to medical advice.

And last, but certainly not least, losing qualified, talented, gifted, hard working service members because of:




AN IDIOTIC, DISHONEST, ASININE, HOMOPHOBIC DADT POLICY!

[Flabbergasted]

1. great point. nt

[dgibby]

2. Thanks. Great doggie!

[Oregone]

3. I hate to mention the elephant in the room here about DADT...

And maybe I am wrong...

But the type of people I saw entering the military from my small town were, well, to put it kindly, the "bad apples" of the entire town. Yeah, occasionally I would see an exception, but...you know, more often than not, it was the people who couldn't get into college and couldn't past the training to be on the local police force. They were not bright and kind people. They were the sort who would rape a 14 year old girl and then burn her body, before you turn them into "trained killers".

So while DADT is a discriminatory policy, absolutely contradictory to the foundation of this nation, how many gays are protected from military sociopathic homophobes who simply don't know who to currently target?

Ah, yeah, I don't have any suggestions, and maybe I am waaay of base, but, well, Im just not really into soldier worship, and although I see exceptions, from anecdotal experiences we have a public institution filled with mediocre homophobes trained to effectively use aggression. It all seems like a volatile situation. Can't we just also make a DADT policy for heterosexuals too (so it applies equally to everyone) and have everyone leave their sexuality at the door when entering the military? Yeah, as I said, I got no solutions.

[dgibby]

4. Don't you find it sadly ironic that the military would choose to keep the people you describe, but

discharge intelligent,skilled, productive, honorable GLBT service members? I think it's outrageous, personally.

[Oregone]

5. heh. Well, I guess it all comes down to what you need at the time

They gotta meet their killer quota. Maybe they have too much intelligence as it is, getting in the way of blowing shit up (not that, well, gays can't be good at blowing shit up).

Maybe the truth is that they have found that gays just aren't enough of dumb aggressive killers to be useful at all times (yeah, that other stuff like translating comes in useful now and then). But maybe I should be fair and consider them, safely, equally dumb and homicidal (though I admit that I do not). :)

But yes, certainly ironic.

[Dragonfli]

6. Excellent letter

Hopefully the realistic perspective you provide regarding good order and discipline will illuminate someones clouded thought process.

Perhaps a staffer will deign to pass it on to the President. (it is addressed to him after all)