Rep. Ackerman: ‘A Platoon Of Lesbians’ Could ‘Chase Us Out Of Baghdad’

[theaudacity]

Yesterday, during hearings on the State Department’s 2008 budget, Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) slammed the U.S. military’s ban on gay servicemembers, saying the Pentagon “seems more afraid of gay people than they are terrorists,” and that if the terrorists were smart, “they’d get a platoon of lesbians to chase us out of Baghdad.”

Ackerman’s tongue-in-cheek remarks to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came after noting that Rice had “repeatedly emphasized the importance of recruiting qualified language experts to work in the agency.” Ackerman pointed out that at least 322 language specialists with “some skills in an important foreign language such as Arabic, Farsi and Korean” had been discharged from the military since the ban’s inception in 1993.

Ackerman suggested that Rice hire the linguists who were kicked out of the military for being gay. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network praised the idea: “Faced with the shortage of language experts, the military would do well to consider Congressman Ackerman’s point. We cannot afford to lose critical personnel because of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’”

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/08/dontask-platoon/

[theaudacity]

1. why did my post get moved from "Breaking News"?

[pepperbear]

2. a couple of reasons

1. it might have been more than 12 hours old
2. you need to put the word for word title of the article in the subject field.

[Tin Man]

3. In this instance, looks like the 12 hour rule

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. There's a solution here --

Get all those fired linguists to form a corporation which will offer its services as contractors to the Department of Defense, charging 10 times their former pay, plus incidentals, hazard pay and insurance.

The pentagon will LOVE them, then.

[theaudacity]

8. burn

so true...

[radfringe]

5. there ya go - we don't need an exit plan for Iraq

we just need a platoon of lesbians to take over the pentagon

[treestar]

6. The gays in the military issue has always floored me

Especially now in times where it's hard to recruit.

I just see no problem whatsoever with gays in the military and can't see what the freepers' problem even is. I guess it is the cognizant dissonance they would get over a member of one of the many groups they hate being a member of the group they consider beyond reproach of any kind.

[theaudacity]

7. An army of cunning linguists.

[Tin Man]

9. badaboom-tsch!!! LOL

that was bad, very bad :evilgrin: