Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Don’t ask, don’t tell has more lives than a vampire. For both supporters and detractors, it’s been something like living with cancer—perhaps painful, although things could be worse.

In statements recently attributed to Secretary of Defense Gates, Stars and Stripes reported the Defense Department is “looking at flexibility in how we apply this (Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell) law” to include “seeing if there is a more humane way to apply the law until it gets changed.”

To date, Gates has been a successful SecDef for several reasons. First, he is fundamentally capable and articulate. Second, he has a vision. Third, he came after Secretary Rumsfeld and was able to harvest the Congressional and media good will associated with not being Donald Rumsfeld. Finally, Gates is politically astute, and tends to work with Congress rather than against them. Because the DoD cannot escape politics, Gates no doubt feels that taking a stand against anything other than the full legal endorsement of gays in the military is analogous to holding back the tides. His comments were less than a week after 77 House Democrats asked the President to stop enforcing the ban on homosexuals openly serving in the military.