Marine Commandant Claims DADT Repeal Would Cost Lives

Marine Corps Commandant James F. Amos believes repealing “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” will be fatal.

When your life hangs on the line,” said Gen. James F. Amos, the commandant of the Marine Corps, “you don’t want anything distracting. . . . Mistakes and inattention or distractions cost Marines’ lives.”

In an interview with newspaper and wire service reporters at the Pentagon, Amos was vague when asked to clarify how the presence of gays would distract or disrupt Marine combat units during a firefight. But he cited a recent Defense Department survey in which a large number of Marine combat veterans predicted that repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law would harm “unit cohesion” and military effectiveness.

“So the Marines came back and they said, ‘Look, anything that’s going to break or potentially break that focus and cause any kind of distraction may have an effect on cohesion,’ ” he said. “I don’t want to permit that opportunity to happen. And I’ll tell you why. If you go up to Bethesda [Naval] hospital . . . Marines are up there with no legs, none. We’ve got Marines at Walter Reed [Army Medical Center] with no limbs.”

Wait, and somehow that has anything to do with gays? Amos don’t need no stinkin’ survey to tell him whether it’s a good idea to repeal DADT:

“…I don’t need a staff study. I don’t need to hire three PhDs to tell me what to interpret it. I’ve got Marines that came back to me as their commandant and said, we have concerns. So if they have concerns, I do, too. It’s as simple as that.”

Jonathan Capehart has a great take on it:

To listen to Amos, you’d think letting gay men and lesbians serve openly would turn his barracks into the set for the third season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Ridiculous, right? Marines who can’t handle serving alongside someone who was closeted on Monday and then comes out on Tuesday are the one Amos should be worried about. They are the ones who will lack discipline. They are the ones who will wreck unit cohesion. They are the ones who will harm morale.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.