Powell does about-face on gays in US military
DAN
DE LUCE
February 5, 2010
As the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1993, Mr Powell had
opposed then-president Bill Clinton's attempt to end a ban on gays in uniform.
Instead, he backed a controversial compromise still in force known as
''don't ask, don't tell'' requiring service members to keep quiet about their
sexual orientation or face expulsion.
But in an about-face, Mr Powell said times had changed.
''In the almost 17 years since the 'don't ask, don't tell' legislation
was passed, attitudes and circumstances have changed,'' he said on Wednesday.
''I fully support the new approach presented to the Senate Armed
Services Committee this week.''
Mr Powell's expression of support for lifting the ban came a day after
the Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, endorsed Mr Obama's call to lift the ban.
Admiral Mullen told the committee that it was his ''personal belief''
that lifting the ban was the ''right thing to do''.
The Pentagon plans to review over the next 12 months the possible
effects of lifting the ban.
In his second day of testimony on Wednesday, Admiral Mullen was pressed
by some Republican senators on whether the chiefs of the US Army, Navy, Air
Force or Marines shared his view.
Admiral Mullen said the service chiefs would have a chance to voice
their opinion at future hearings but that he had discussed the issue with them.
Some of the service chiefs were known to oppose lifting the ban, while
others had reservations, said defence officials, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
Amid criticism from opponents of the ban that the Pentagon was moving
too slowly, Mr Gates warned against rushing through a change to the law without
gauging the views of service members and their families.
''The Department of Defence is the biggest, most complex, organisation
in the world. Our military culture is one of our greatest strengths but it's
also a strong culture,'' he said.
''And so we need to work with people, we need to get their input into
how to go about this.
''Rushing into it, mandating it by fiat with a very short time line
would be a serious mistake.''
Backing from Mr Powell provides the military leadership and Mr Obama
with significant additional support for a change. A Republican who served as
secretary of state under president George Bush, Mr Powell gave his support to
Mr Obama's presidential campaign in October 2008.
But even with Mr Powell's backing , it remains unclear if Mr Obama can
secure enough votes in Congress to repeal the ban.
Some Democrats are promoting, as an interim step, a suspension of all
further discharges under the current law until the Pentagon finished its
review.
''I think what's more likely than repeal … is a moratorium,'' the
chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin, said on Monday.