US military's gay policy 'costly'

[alonzomourning23]

The US military has had to spend about $200m (£106m) on replacing service members lost under its policy on homosexuals, a report has found.
The service lost almost 10,000 gays and lesbians under its "don't ask, don't tell" policy, said the study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

A number of those had skills - such as languages in Arabic, Farsi and Korean - vital to the US war on terror.

The policy was introduced in 1993 by then US President Bill Clinton.

It was a compromise following controversy when Mr Clinton tried to lift the long-standing ban on homosexuals serving in the military.

The GAO study found that, since that time, the US military had lost 9,488 service men and women because of the policy.

Of those, 757 were in critical occupations such as interpreters and intelligence analysts.

Some 322 had proficiency in strategically important languages that the Pentagon has said are in short supply, the GAO concluded.

'Bin policy' call

The GAO said it was not possible to estimate the full costs of the Pentagon's policy on homosexuals.

But it said it cost around $190 million to recruit and train replacement personnel.

Democrats representative Martin Meehan said he would introduce a bill next week to repeal the policy, Reuters news agency reported.

"It is more apparent than ever before that, as we conduct a global war on terror and face tremendous personnel shortages, that the 'don't ask, don't tell' law is undermining our military readiness," he was quoted as saying.

Responding to the GAO report, the Pentagon said that of all the military personnel discharged for various reasons between 1994-2003, just 0.37% was because of homosexual conduct.

Under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, the US military does not ask about, and service members do not reveal their, sexual orientation.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4296325.stm

 

[Trancendental]

[quote name='alonzomourning23']

The US military has had to spend about $200m (£106m) on replacing service members lost under its policy on homosexuals, a report has found.
The service lost almost 10,000 gays and lesbians under its "don't ask, don't tell" policy, said the study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

A number of those had skills - such as languages in Arabic, Farsi and Korean - vital to the US war on terror.

The policy was introduced in 1993 by then US President Bill Clinton.

It was a compromise following controversy when Mr Clinton tried to lift the long-standing ban on homosexuals serving in the military.

The GAO study found that, since that time, the US military had lost 9,488 service men and women because of the policy.

Of those, 757 were in critical occupations such as interpreters and intelligence analysts.

Some 322 had proficiency in strategically important languages that the Pentagon has said are in short supply, the GAO concluded.

'Bin policy' call

The GAO said it was not possible to estimate the full costs of the Pentagon's policy on homosexuals.

But it said it cost around $190 million to recruit and train replacement personnel.

Democrats representative Martin Meehan said he would introduce a bill next week to repeal the policy, Reuters news agency reported.

"It is more apparent than ever before that, as we conduct a global war on terror and face tremendous personnel shortages, that the 'don't ask, don't tell' law is undermining our military readiness," he was quoted as saying.

Responding to the GAO report, the Pentagon said that of all the military personnel discharged for various reasons between 1994-2003, just 0.37% was because of homosexual conduct.

Under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, the US military does not ask about, and service members do not reveal their, sexual orientation.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4296325.stm[/quote]

We're probably better off. After all, we all know gays can't be great warriors *cough*Alexander the Great*cough*

 

[Sarang01]

What's that about camoor?

 

[zionoverfire]

[quote name='camoor']
We're probably better off. After all, we all know gays can't be great warriors *cough*Alexander the Great*cough*[/quote]

Wasn't he bisexual?

 

[neopolss]

I believe so. It would explain a great deal of his conflicts.

 

[Duo_Maxwell]

[quote name='zionoverfire'][quote name='camoor']
We're probably better off. After all, we all know gays can't be great warriors *cough*Alexander the Great*cough*[/quote]

Wasn't he bisexual?[/quote]

Yes, which wasn't really all to uncommon for his society/times. However, the thing that is so costly for the military is not they they are losing people in "warrior" positions.

 

[David85]

200 millino is nothing, we spend thta much in Iraq in like 10 hours.

The costly part is the fact that they know Arab lanuages and if they them translate the phone calls on 9-10 then 9-11 would have never have happened.

But 9-11 was a good day right? I mean we can't let the fags win. Getting rid of a few gays in the military is worth the 3,000 lives and the trillions of dollars in damage right? Right?

My favorite is that the governement looses 1 billion dollars a year by not letting gays marry. I love thta fact.

 

[Trancendental]

I was just kidding.

It's just another thing I gotta pay for because the fundamentalist christians running this circus of a government have a huge stick up their collective asses.

People are living in misery or dying (christians misunderstanding stem cells), the new order's straight policies for the military has cost the taxpayers $200 million (christians hating gays), and lovers of the First Amendment are losing ground in the culture wars (conservative christians stamping out depictions of reality in news and media - IE the old " think of the children " arguement)

Where's the small government and fiscal responsibility that the Republicans promised?