You gotta hand it to the military for having their priorities straight. With a long track record of white supremacist groups stealing military equipment and giving it to their KKK buddies, they still won't do anything to break up a network of such people operating at military bases around the country - but even while facing a shortage of Arabic translators that endangers our troops and impedes our intelligence gathering, they still find the time to boot a gay Arabic linguist out of the military.
A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, though he says he never told his superiors he was gay and his accuser was never identified.
Bleu Copas, 30, told The Associated Press he is gay, but said he was "outed" by a stream of anonymous e-mails to his superiors in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.
And this is hardly the first time this has happened. In 2002, they booted out 6 Arabic linguists for being gay, even while Pentagon officials admitted that the lack of Arabic speaking soldiers for interrogations, negotiations and communication was putting our soldiers at greater risk in Iraq and Afghanistan. Indeed, the Tribune article notes:
More than 11,000 service members have been dismissed under the policy, including 726 last year -- an 11 percent jump from 2004 and the first increase since 2001...
But the GAO also noted that nearly 800 dismissed gay or lesbian service members had critical abilities, including 300 with important language skills. Fifty-five were proficient in Arabic, including Copas, a graduate of the Defense Language Institute in California.
Discharging and replacing them has cost the Pentagon nearly $369 million, according to the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Bravo, Pentagon. Keep the racist nutballs with a long history of stealing C-4, M-16s and anti-tank munitions, but discharge the ones who enlisted after 9/11 to help their country because they had crucial language skills that the military sorely need. That's absolutely brilliant.
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Well you know that gays are so powerful the mere thought of them getting married is alone sufficient to destroy marriage. Imagine what they could do under cover of authority! Clearly they are far more of a threat than a few (or many) psychos stealing military weaponry and abusing military training.
Sounds like there's a fifth colonne firmly entrenched in the army, trying to weaken its intelligence efforts........
Army ... intelligence? You know what they say about that.
On the other-hand, it is nice to know that you can still get out of the military at will just by convincing them you are gay. After getting shot at for a while in Iraq, some of my fellow soldiers might start to look pretty good,...
* "Hey private, you've been picked to patrol..."
* "Damn Sarge, you are looking HOT. Not as HOT as the LT mind you, but HOT."
I guess the pressing question here is why are there so many homosexual arabic linguists.
I'm sure its some left wing plot to deceive the M.I. brigades.
SUPPORT THE TROOPS! (unless their gay, of course)
Does Dave Scott know that the entire military has been accused of being homosexual?
Can anyone think of an Arabic-speaking individual with more honest motivation to halt radical islamic fundementalism than a homosexual?
That's a good point - after all, during the Cold War, US policy about third-world countries could be summed up as 'the only reliable anti-communist is a fascist'.
I guess he wasn't cunning enough for them...
Why do we let retards run the government?
Heh. Somehow, I think gay translators in the military would cause far less damage than the cold war policy of supporting right-wing dictators over left-wing democracies in developing nations.
Cecil,
I guess he wasn't cunning enough for them...
Are perhaps implying that he was a cunning-linguist. But enough of these tongue in cheek remarks.
Are perhaps implying that he was a cunning-linguist. But enough of these tongue in cheek remarks.
In cheek? I thought...
Cecil and Roman,
I know It really makes no sense, but pun was just to tempting.
Seriously, someone out to think about the fact that Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell doesn't improve the security of the U.S. That suggests to me that it is not a wise policy.
Help I need a copy editor.
but pun was just to tempting
should be
but the pun was just too tempting
Seriously, someone out to
should be
Seriously, someone ought to
Maybe the secret for getting the white supremacists out of the military is to start sending emails "accusing" them of being gay.
BTW, I attended DLI (Russian). The cunning linguist pun was standard issue.
Better a cunning linguist than a master debater.
Maybe it wasn't because they were gay but because they weren't terribly bright. For difficult and sensitive operations, the army can only accept the best and the brightest. Not too many gay, cunning linguists out there, I suppose.