The cultural left is on the march to wreck the military, but hopefully the Senate’s impasse over tax cuts and the budget will run out the clock on “Don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal. Anyway, Family Research Council has done some great work exposing misinformation getting repeated throughout the mainstream media (MSM) – such as that the majority of troops have no problems with DADT repeal.
Consistently, the MSM has ignored the inconvenient truth about the 70 percent figure in the Pentagon’s Comprehensive Review Working Group (CRWG) study saying troops found repeal of DADT would have “positive, mixed, or no effect.”
FRC analyst Peter Sprigg has been closely mining the data of the CRWG study and shows that it does not actually make a compelling case for repeal. In fact, the study’s data really argues against it, esp. considering the United States military – an all-volunteer force – has been at war for nine years and stretched to the brink maintaining its presence all over the world.
The reality is that only a minority of troops in the study say repeal would have no negative effects on the military. Those saying the change would be positive were 18.4 percent; those saying no effect were 19.9 percent.
On the other hand, 29.6 percent said repeal would be negative, while 32.1 percent said repeal would effect units “equally positively and negatively.” Taken together, Sprigg says that means close to 62 percent of troops believe repeal will have some kind of negative effect on the military and its culture.
He also points out, “the results of the survey are dramatically clear—those who foresee a negative consequence from repeal outnumber those who foresee a positive consequence on virtually every question.”
US combat troops in the survey are overwhelmingly opposed to repeal – Sprigg breaks down that information here in a different analysis.
But Sprigg’s analysis also shows that losing a handful of homosexual specialists and military personnel is pretty slight compared to the effect that DADT repeal would have on the military’s ability to recruit and retain their current personnel. The number of those who would consider leaving the military earlier than they planned or immediately on DADT repeal was “more than six times higher than the number who would stay longer or consider doing so.”
Oh, yes, and one more tidbit from Sprigg. Apparently the Pentagon felt so confident about repeal that it just thought to mention on page 49, one other inconvenient truth: “The majority of views expressed were against repeal.” Link here.
It’s pretty clear that not even an eight ball would convince the Pentagon that signs point to ‘no’ on the question of whether or not repealing DADT is a remotely good idea.
Let’s just hope the Senate actually reads the report (or even a “CliffNotes” style summary) before getting down to a vote that might profoundly alter the most powerful fighting force in the world.