I've got a new post up at Greg's place about John McCain's obtuseness on DADT and his insistence that we need "a thorough and complete study of the effects -- not how to implement a repeal, but the effects on morale and battle effectiveness," now that it's clear the study will show minimal opposition to its repeal among service members. Of course, the U.S. government already did one more than a decade ago, and the results were what you would expect:
Good news for McCain: A study of that kind was already conducted in 1993 by the Rand Corporation. That study, which looked at the effect of allowing gays and lesbians to work as police, firefighters, and serve as soldiers in foreign militaries, found that there was no danger in allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly. The reason was that while gay and lesbian servicemembers serving openly might undermine "social cohesion," it wouldn't undermine "task cohesion," which is the only factor that impacts military effectiveness. In spite of the evidence, the politics and prevailing cultural prejudices of the time resulted in the "compromise" policy of allowing gays and lesbians to serve as long as they conceal their orientation. The truth is that we've known that this kind of social diversity doesn't hurt the military since the government studied integrated units during the Korean War in the 1950s. When it comes to foxholes, bigotry is less common than atheism.
I neglected to mention the fact that he apparently forced his wife to, rather publicly, change her mind on the subject.
