McCain On DADT

Ken AshfordSex/Morality/Family Values, War on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

Well, the repeal of DADT passed.

And this made McCain cry.  The Washington Post recounts the ugliness:

In the end, McCain lost eight Republicans as the ban was easily overturned. This wasn't entirely surprising, because Defense Secretary Robert Gates (a Bush administration holdover) and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen both argued passionately for repeal, and a Pentagon study forecast that a repeal would not bring significant harm.

McCain clung to the dissenting view of the Marine commandant, Gen. James Amos, who had warned that lifting the ban would create a "distraction" that could lead to battlefield injuries for U.S. troops. But assurances by Gates were good enough for Republican senators such as George Voinovich (Ohio), who defended his yes vote by saying he expects repeal "will be implemented in a common-sense way."

The loss of Republican votes, no doubt, made McCain even angrier. When it came time for his closing argument before the day's key vote, McCain spoke for only a few seconds: "Today's a very sad day. The commandant of the United States Marine Corps says when your life hangs on the line, you don't want anything distracting. . . . I don't want to permit that opportunity to happen and I'll tell you why. You go up to Bethesda Naval Hospital, Marines are up there with no legs, none. You've got Marines at Walter Reed with no limbs."

McCain turned and, without another word, walked into the cloakroom.

Let's reflect on this for a moment.

Those Marines that McCain was talking about.  The ones at Bethesda.  They lost limbs because they were distracted?  Isn't is possible some of them, if not (oh) all of them, lost limbs while fully alert?  I mean, a roadside bomb goes off and I don't care how alert you are — if your Humvee is driving over it, it's going to hit you.

And then you wonder…. is having gay people in the service distracting?  And by "distracting" I mean "so distracting that you are likely to have your limbs blown off"?  Because that's what McCain is saying.

What a weirdo.  Face it, Johnnie.  You don't like repeal of DADT because you don't like gay people.