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http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/1220/1224285915154.html
Obama secures Senate repeal of gay military ban
Senators Joseph Lieberman (left) and Susan Collins listen to Mark Udall speak during a press conference on Capitol Hill yesterday in the wake of the repeal of the US government's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/Getty ImagesSenators Joseph Lieberman (left) and Susan Collins listen to Mark Udall speak during a press conference on Capitol Hill yesterday in the wake of the repeal of the US government's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images
In this section »
* Five Palestinians killed in Israeli air strike
* Taliban suicide attacks kill 10 Afghan soldiers
* Documentary examines Irishman's role in helping Churchill become leader
LARA MARLOWE in Washington
PRESIDENT BARACK Obama fulfilled a major campaign promise when the Senate repealed the 17 year-old ban on gays serving openly in the military at the weekend.
The repeal, which could not have been foreseen even a week ago, helped to repair the damage to Obama’s standing with liberal Democrats, only 24 hours after he broke a different promise, to raise taxes on the richest Americans.
The House Democratic leadership boycotted the signing ceremony for Obama’s tax compromise Bill, which extends Bush-era tax cuts for all Americans, at the White House last Friday afternoon.
Mr Obama now looks set to score yet another victory this week, when the Senate is expected to ratify the New Start nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia.
Vice-president Joe Biden said yesterday that the administration believes it has secured the 67 votes need to ratify the treaty. The Senate Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell told CNN he would vote against the treaty because he believes the verification provisions are inadequate and he worries about “the missile defence implications of it.”
Mr Obama wrote to Senate leaders at the weekend to reassure them that a clause in the preamble of the treaty that alludes to “the interrelationship between strategic offensive arms and strategic defensive arms” would not affect US plans to deploy a missile defence system in Europe.
Mr Obama will sign the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” at the White House this week, but it will take it least two months for the new policy to take effect.
The president and top military officers must first certify to Congress that the change will not affect troop readiness, cohesion or military recruitment and retention.
Mr Obama said in a statement: “No longer will our nation be denied the service of thousands of patriotic Americans forced to leave the military, despite years of exemplary performance, because they happen to be gay. And no longer will many thousands more be asked to live a lie in order to serve the country they love.”
Supporters of the Bill who watched the vote in the Senate gallery hugged each other, did ‘high fives’ and punched fists into the air when the final tally of 65 to 31 — including eight Republicans — was announced. Others unfurled rainbow flags on the Mall.
“This is the defining civil rights initiative of the decade,” said Aubrey Sarvis, an army veteran and the director of Servicemembers Legal Defence Network. The repeal has been compared to the end of racial discrimination in the military in the 1950s and the admission of women to military academies in the 1970s.
Mr Sarvis asked defence secretary Robert Gates to suspend investigations and discharge proceedings that are already under way.
Just over a week ago, Republicans threatened to filibuster the defence spending Bill as long as the repeal was attached to it.
In a rare example of bi-partisan co-operation, senators Joe Lieberman, an Independent, and Susan Collins, a Republican, then persuaded Democratic leaders in the House to propose a stand-alone Bill repealing the 1993 legislation. The Bill passed the House on December 15th.
The Republican senator John McCain led opposition to the repeal in the Senate. “I hope that when we pass this legislation that we will understand that we are doing great damage,” Mr McCain said in what the Washington Post described as an ill-tempered “harangue”, “tempest” and “tantrum” on the Senate floor on Saturday. Gen James Amos, the Marine commandant, was the only military leader to oppose the repeal, and McCain quoted Amos copiously.
Public opinion was ahead of politicians on this issue. When the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law was passed in 1993, only 44 per cent of Americans believed gays should be allowed to serve openly in the military. A recent ABC-Washington Post poll showed that 77 per cent now oppose discrimination against gays in the military.
The Pentagon also feared a protracted battle over legal challenges in the courts if Congress did not act to repeal the law quickly.
More than 13,000 service members have been forced to leave the military under the policy, which was enacted under the Clinton administration as a compromise with top-ranking officers who did not want gays to be allowed to serve. Many of those discharged were Arabic language specialists whose skills are badly needed in the fight against Islamist extremists.
Obama secures Senate repeal of gay military ban
Senators Joseph Lieberman (left) and Susan Collins listen to Mark Udall speak during a press conference on Capitol Hill yesterday in the wake of the repeal of the US government's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/Getty ImagesSenators Joseph Lieberman (left) and Susan Collins listen to Mark Udall speak during a press conference on Capitol Hill yesterday in the wake of the repeal of the US government's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images
In this section »
* Five Palestinians killed in Israeli air strike
* Taliban suicide attacks kill 10 Afghan soldiers
* Documentary examines Irishman's role in helping Churchill become leader
LARA MARLOWE in Washington
PRESIDENT BARACK Obama fulfilled a major campaign promise when the Senate repealed the 17 year-old ban on gays serving openly in the military at the weekend.
The repeal, which could not have been foreseen even a week ago, helped to repair the damage to Obama’s standing with liberal Democrats, only 24 hours after he broke a different promise, to raise taxes on the richest Americans.
The House Democratic leadership boycotted the signing ceremony for Obama’s tax compromise Bill, which extends Bush-era tax cuts for all Americans, at the White House last Friday afternoon.
Mr Obama now looks set to score yet another victory this week, when the Senate is expected to ratify the New Start nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia.
Vice-president Joe Biden said yesterday that the administration believes it has secured the 67 votes need to ratify the treaty. The Senate Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell told CNN he would vote against the treaty because he believes the verification provisions are inadequate and he worries about “the missile defence implications of it.”
Mr Obama wrote to Senate leaders at the weekend to reassure them that a clause in the preamble of the treaty that alludes to “the interrelationship between strategic offensive arms and strategic defensive arms” would not affect US plans to deploy a missile defence system in Europe.
Mr Obama will sign the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” at the White House this week, but it will take it least two months for the new policy to take effect.
The president and top military officers must first certify to Congress that the change will not affect troop readiness, cohesion or military recruitment and retention.
Mr Obama said in a statement: “No longer will our nation be denied the service of thousands of patriotic Americans forced to leave the military, despite years of exemplary performance, because they happen to be gay. And no longer will many thousands more be asked to live a lie in order to serve the country they love.”
Supporters of the Bill who watched the vote in the Senate gallery hugged each other, did ‘high fives’ and punched fists into the air when the final tally of 65 to 31 — including eight Republicans — was announced. Others unfurled rainbow flags on the Mall.
“This is the defining civil rights initiative of the decade,” said Aubrey Sarvis, an army veteran and the director of Servicemembers Legal Defence Network. The repeal has been compared to the end of racial discrimination in the military in the 1950s and the admission of women to military academies in the 1970s.
Mr Sarvis asked defence secretary Robert Gates to suspend investigations and discharge proceedings that are already under way.
Just over a week ago, Republicans threatened to filibuster the defence spending Bill as long as the repeal was attached to it.
In a rare example of bi-partisan co-operation, senators Joe Lieberman, an Independent, and Susan Collins, a Republican, then persuaded Democratic leaders in the House to propose a stand-alone Bill repealing the 1993 legislation. The Bill passed the House on December 15th.
The Republican senator John McCain led opposition to the repeal in the Senate. “I hope that when we pass this legislation that we will understand that we are doing great damage,” Mr McCain said in what the Washington Post described as an ill-tempered “harangue”, “tempest” and “tantrum” on the Senate floor on Saturday. Gen James Amos, the Marine commandant, was the only military leader to oppose the repeal, and McCain quoted Amos copiously.
Public opinion was ahead of politicians on this issue. When the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law was passed in 1993, only 44 per cent of Americans believed gays should be allowed to serve openly in the military. A recent ABC-Washington Post poll showed that 77 per cent now oppose discrimination against gays in the military.
The Pentagon also feared a protracted battle over legal challenges in the courts if Congress did not act to repeal the law quickly.
More than 13,000 service members have been forced to leave the military under the policy, which was enacted under the Clinton administration as a compromise with top-ranking officers who did not want gays to be allowed to serve. Many of those discharged were Arabic language specialists whose skills are badly needed in the fight against Islamist extremists.
