Predictably, DADT supporters such as Sen. John McCain -- who seems to be clinging to any pretext whatsoever in order to deal his former campaign rival a humiliating political defeat--have seized on heightened concerns among combat units about the consequences of DADT repeal to continue blocking the process. The Senate Armed Services Committee is currently holding a hearing on the DoD's DADT report.
This is, in part, a predictable consequences of emphasizing the opinions of the troops over the rights of gays and lesbians to serve openly, but given the historical context, it's a bit strange. First, the DADT survey numbers on combat troops:
In response to question 68a, for example, while only 30% the U.S. military as a whole predict negative or very negative effects on their unit’s ability to “work together to get the job done,”the percentage is 43% for the Marines Corps, 48% within Army combat arms units, and 58% within Marine combat arms units. Particularly in this time of war, we made sure that warfighters in all Services were part of our risk assessment process.
Historically speaking, that's much lower than white "combat crews" who were surveyed in 1945 about integrated units, 76 percent of whom were opposed.
Would McCain have supported continued segregation of the military based on race because white service members were overwhelmingly opposed? Because the question isn't any different here.
According to the report, among those combat troops who have actually served among gays and lesbians, support for repeal is at similar levels to the rest of the service -- 92 percent of the overall military rated their unit's ability to work together while serving with gays and lesbians, “very good,” “good,” or “neither good nor poor.” Among combat unit members who believe they've served with gays and lesbians, it's 89 percent.
Those views mirror the experiences of integrated units in the Korean War, which performed as well as all-white units despite the stiff opposition of white soldiers prior to integration. When asked about serving with gays and lesbians in an "intense combat situation," negative predictions of the effect of repeal drop significantly. If the U.S. military's experience with integration is predictive, these concerns can be dissolved by allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly.
