I have a friend who canceled plans last year to play recreational football because, “it’s Wednesday, and I usually get home early on Wednesdays and like to have dinner ready for my wife when she gets home from work.”
“How the mighty have fallen,” a second friend lamented, “I wish I could email that sentence to the You of 2006 and see what he has to say about your cojones.”
Such is John McCain on “don’t ask don’t tell.” Here’s an interview with him in 2006 saying that “the day the leadership of the military comes to me and says, we oughta change the policy, then I think we oughta seriously consider changing it.” Where are his cojones?
As I highlighted yesterday, the military brass has answered McCain’s call. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, and retired General Colin Powell have all signaled a willingness to change the policy. Back in March of this year, General Petraeus echoed McCain’s 2006 language almost verbatim, saying ““I believe the time has come to consider a change to ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’”
So you’d think that when the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, America’s most respected retired flag officer and its most respected battlefield commander all endorse a change to DADT, McCain would be good to his word.
Instead, McCain is moving the goal posts. For McCain, all of a sudden it’s not good enough that the military leadership has let its views be known, because he now claims that by voting on the measure, the Senate would be “ignoring the troops”. This is a reference to an ongoing survey of active duty troops on their views on DADT, which McCain is working to discredit anyway, just in case it doesn’t say what he wants it to (and frankly, who knows what he wants it to say at this point.)
To be clear, the Pentagon should absolutely solicit the views of active duty personnel as a critical factor in this debate. However, it is neither the only nor most important input. Results of any survey must be weighed against historical averages, adjusted for bias and put in perspective.
Might the social norms of macho military culture influence soldiers to indicate false discomfort about serving with homosexuals? Should the opinion of an 18 year old private matter as much as a battle-tested Four-Star general with 40 years of military experience? Keep in mind that the military’s rigid command structure regularly demands that its leaders make choices in the best interests of the country. And those leaders have clearly spoken.
John McCain’s consistent inconsistencies (ha!) have been well documented by my friend Max Bergmann. It’s curious why McCain, ex-maverick and having successfully beaten back a Tea Party challenge in his recent Arizona primary, continues down this orthodox conservative path. Let’s hope John McCain remembers the “him” of 2006. Or even better, the McCain of 2000.
Photo credit: Wigwam Jones
