Don't Ask the Republicans

Candidates for president get it all wrong on gays in the military.

WHEN IT CAME to answering questions in the New Hampshire debates last week about the Defense Department's wrongheaded "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military, all the Democratic candidates for president got it right: The policy should be scrapped. What was appalling was the response from the Republican contenders. If they didn't try to avoid the question by steering the conversation to the Iraq war or immigration, they praised the policy and engaged in tired explanations for why gays and lesbians should not openly serve their country.

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, after trying unsuccessfully to change the subject the conversation to immigration, said that "you don't punish people for their attitudes; you punish them if their behavior creates a problem." Yes, people should be punished for bad behavior. But they should not be discharged for who they are. Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani declared, "At a time of war, you don't make fundamental changes like this." Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney agreed. "This is not the time to put in place a major change, a social experiment, in the middle of a war going on," he said. And Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) pronounced: "The policy is working."

No. It's not working. It's harming people who want to honorably serve their country, and it's harming the country they want to serve.

"Don't ask, don't tell" was a messy compromise that President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1993 to quell a rebellion among military brass and Congress over his effort to keep a campaign promise to end the ban on gays in the military. As Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) said in the Democrats' debate, "It was a transition policy." While the Republican candidates used the war in Iraq as an excuse for inaction on this issue, Ms. Clinton poignantly used the war to show how the policy is hurting our troops. "We've had Arabic linguists discharged under 'don't ask, don't tell' when we are, unfortunately, so short of having people who speak the very language that our men and women in uniform have to understand in the streets of Baghdad," she said. Since 1993, more than 11,000 people, including 58 Arabic linguists, have been drummed out of the armed forces just for being gay.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), who was in Congress during the battle that brought about "don't ask, don't tell," said, "This is ridiculous. . . . This is not a rational policy." Considering that gays and lesbians are serving openly in 24 countries, including staunch allies Israel, Australia and Britain, Mr. Biden is absolutely right.