A MIDDLE GROUND ON DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL?

It seems that the United States military is about to fire a servicemember, and one who speaks Arabic, for being gay. During his campaign, President Barack Obama promised to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the law that prevents gays and lesbians in the military from serving openly, but has yet to take action on the issue while in office, fearing a domestic political backlash but, more likely in my view, fearing a souring of relations with senior military commanders.

Aaron Belkin argues that the president doesn't even need to go through Congress to end the practice; I don't know one way or another, but Belkin's argument makes me wonder if there is a smart middle ground here -- much as I'd hope Obama would simply take a bold step here, it's pretty clear that isn't going to happen. But what if, instead of striking the law down immediately, he put a moratorium on its enforcement while announcing a "policy review." Say that he signed an executive order halting all investigations and prosceutions of soldiers for their sexual orientation over a six-month period while -- you know Washington would love this -- a blue ribbon commission looked into the effects of the policy. Given that all evidence indicates that no harm and great benefit comes from allowing gays and lesbians to serve, and that public opinion is on the side of this measure, it's not hard to predict what the outcome would be. But a symbolic delay would help defuse the politics of the situation while preventing further discharges.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell is a rank injustice and detrimental to our national security policy. LGBTQ citizens shouldn't have to wait on politics to serve anymore than they should to wait to marry their partners, and the delay must be excruciating. But a incremental proposal like this one might be the best way to set the stage for reversing DADT succesfully, or at least convincing the overburdened pragmatists in the administration that this is the best way to reverse the law succesfully. This is one of those clear, hard choices that the president promised to tackle. It would be a shame if he passed the buck.

-- Tim Fernholz