January 29, 2010
Updated - transcript added
Hardball
Lt Choi/Lt Col Fehrenbach/DADT
Rep Joe Sestak (D-PA), retired 3-star Admiral with 31 years service in the US Navy thinks it’s time for DADT to be repealed. He was on Hardball before, which I thought I had a post on but couldn’t locate. He makes the point that the average age in the military is 19 and they aren’t as hung up on gays in the military or elsewhere. That it’s “a time where leadership is needed” and “the commander in chief needs to say, make it happen” and it’s time to move beyond the discrimination, which is exactly what it is.
Discrimination the Commander in Chief does not care about.
As of October 2009:
DADT dismissals in the last 5 years:
800 mission-critical troops
At least 59 Arabic linguists
9 Farsi linguists
Women dischaged at a higher rate then men.
Each and every one of those Arabic linguists are vital to national security and each and every one would have been able to see through the Ft Hood muslim murderer.
There have been 600 428 discharges – 169 women, 259 men since barry, who campaigned on repealing DADT, could have done something about it. He doesn’t need and act of Congress and he doesn’t need the Pentagon’s approval or feasibility studies or anything else to sign an executive order stopping discharges. But, like everything else – it’s just talk.
The most ridiculous justification I have heard – it might have even been a comment here somewhere – was gay (men) get to look at other men naked so it’s not fair unless they get to look at women. Truth is – they are doing more than looking. They are RAPING their female “comrades” at a rate at least double the civilian population.
Women in the military: 1 in 3 vs civilian 1 in 6 and both are only estimates because the rate of unreported rapes is 80-90% in the military according to the Pentagon’s own reports. And it’s not gay male soldiers raping gay female soldiers. Women in Iraq and Afghanistan, who, contrary to propaganda, are involved in active combat (Why are there so many female veterans with traumatic amputations? They’re not getting them in the mess hall or entering data into a computer.), are more likely to be raped than killed.
That is a disgusting thought and it is the military’s dirty little secret that no one in Congress wants to unleash. How much have you heard about healthcare in the last 2 years? Heard any discussion about women veteran’s care for the “other PTSD”? Any discussion of how women veterans are treated after discharge? Heard the term Military Sexual Trauma?
Didn’t think so.
And “therapy”? Talking to male therapists and/or group therapy with male soldiers as if that is going to help. So what do the women do? Keep quiet. If there is no true help available, why would they say anything? All it would do is heap more shame on them and have more men questioning whether they “asked for it”.
Lot’s of talk and outrage about DADT but nothing about women getting raped in the military or their alleged battle buddies who stand by and say nothing. And suddenly women became so important in Iraq that US Army Maj Gen Cucolo tried to punish (including court martial) women soldiers who get pregnant while on active duty – making sure to note that the impregnator gets the same “punishment”. Madness. Of course once it was made public the policy went away.
The unasked question: How many pregnancies result from rape?
It’s not something the good general didn’t think of because his policy stated: Does not apply to pregnancies resulting from rape.
Here’s the video. Those of you who prefer the transcript – I’ll add it when it becomes available.
TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL.
OBAMA: this year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are.
That was President Obama declaring in his State of the Union address that he will get Congress to repeal the military‘s don‘t ask, don‘t tell policy.Democratic Congressman Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania, a retired Navy admiral, also says it‘s time for the policy to go.
Were you surprised, Admiral and Congressman, that this was coming, this decision by the president to push again to get rid of don‘t ask, don‘t tell?
REP. JOE SESTAK (D), PENNSYLVANIA: I was pleased that it finally did come. I felt—and I had written the president last year—that we should have done something for our ideals, this particular issue, last year. So, I‘m glad now that he‘s actually asking the Pentagon to even, as I understand, propose how to do it in the budget that‘s coming forth next week.
MATTHEWS: Do you think he‘s going to operate ahead of the generals and the admirals, or is he going to wait for them to form a consensus? Is he going to wait for a deal with them or push them?
SESTAK: This is a time where leadership is needed. There shouldn‘t be waiting for leadership in the Pentagon to act.
Look, this is an issue about equal rights. When you go on an aircraft carrier—and you have been there, Chris — 5,000 sailors, their average age, 19-and-a-half. This is where these youth, they don‘t care if somebody‘s gay. They‘re actually ahead of the leadership of the military. And the leadership, if they want to lead, better get ahead of the troops. So, this is one where the commander in chief needs to say, make it happen.
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KSM trial in NYC
MATTHEWS: Let‘s go to now—let‘s go to this question here of this KSM trial in New York. And I want to get to Pennsylvania in a minute, but next question, it‘s a hot one. Should the president, should we, the attorney general and the government, try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, in New York City in a criminal trial?
SESTAK: Well, I‘m surprised we‘re not going to be able to.
Look, I read an article today that said it might take 2,500 police, a lot of checkpoints. Now, wait a moment here. I remember working at the White House when President Clinton was there, and I just drove past it the other day. We‘re able to protect the White House, which we have to protect almost more than anything else, without having checkpoints four miles away.
I don‘t understand why we can‘t do it. But if we can‘t do it downtown New York City, we should do it in the Southern District of New York City. Why? Military tribunals twice have been told by the Supreme Court, you‘re insufficient.
There‘s an individual there who murdered. He should be brought to justice. And then he should be sentenced to the appropriate punishment, even death, by U.S. citizens for the harm he‘s done to this nation. Let‘s have justice done.
