[Hoot Gibson]

First of all, nobody has the right to tell me whether, as a civilian, I am entitled to express an opinion on this issue. The reason that DADT, a policy which was working just fine as far as I know, was repealed was because of the political pressure applied to elected liberal Democrats, chief among them was civilian President Barack Obama. My opinion on this issue is just as valid as the opinions of those civilians who successfully lobbied for the repeal of DADT. As I explain below, I agree with Vundy that the opinions of those who are serving in the military should be weighed much more heavily than the opinions of civilians. Military policies and procedures should not be politicized but that is the system that we have in place.

Ideally, American presidents would promote generals to positions such as those on the Joint Chiefs of Staff based on merits rather than political considerations, but that often has not been the case. Therefore, the opinions of the Chiefs of Staff and other high ranking generals and admirals are often more reflective of the current president's political opinions rather than the opinions of those below the Chiefs in the chain of command.

I agree that civilians such as our president (whoever he may be) should rely heavily on the knowledge and experience of military professionals before making policy changes but too often changes are made to the military to reward special interest groups for their support during campaigns. This is not a direct criticism of President Obama, he is not the first president to use the military for social engineering and he will not be the last. Every president, be they Democrat or Republican, wants to put his supporters in positions of trust, which explains how somebody as incompetent as Wesley Clark rose so high in the ranks.

The repeal of DADT is not a huge issue for me, but I opposed it because it is yet another change to the best military in the world that came about because of political considerations rather than practical ones. Vundy is right about this being a decision made by civilians and pushed on the military.

I get tired of receiving spam in my military email account announcing the latest celebration of another hyphenated-American group. I cannot believe that if the military decided to declare a week dedicated to Irish-American soldiers, that my morale would be boosted. From what I have seen, the military does a great job with its ceremonies recognizing individual and unit accomplishments but I strongly suspect that the hyphenated-American weeks and months originate from outside the military, just as the DADT policy and its recent repeal did.