I am getting really, really fed up with the Republicans' constant hammering of us on spurious issues of national security. I think it's time we turned the tables on them on a real issue of national security: the policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell poses a genuine hazard to national security, and we should pull no punches. You want to defend DADT? Fine, then you bear responsibility for any attacks or attempts that could have been stopped had we not deprived the country of the services of people who could have helped stop them.
Quite apart from basic issues of civil rights, Don't Ask Don't Tell prevents patriotic Americans who wish to serve their country from doing so. It also deprives our country of the service of these loyal citizens, many of whom possess skills critical to our national defense.
This Wikipedia article notes that 59 Arabic speakers and 9 Farsi speakers have been discharged from the military (through last June), despite shortages in these specialties. This surely inhibits our intelligence gathering/analysis and interrogation capabilities. Since 2001, over 6000 soldiers, sailors, airmen/women, and Marines -- more than a brigade's worth of troops -- have been discharged. When we're fighting two wars, we cannot afford to unnecessarily lose anyone, much less a brigade or two.
When the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff both favor repealing this law, members of Congress who oppose it must answer to why they favor depriving the military of these individual over the recommendation of the highest civilian and military leaders -- particularly during wartime. I am particularly disappointed in Sen. McCain, who dishonors his own long and hard service to the country -- and his previous enlightened position against DADT -- with today's little outburst.
(Note that if any of this comes across sounding...well...not typical of Daily Kos, that's deliberate. Throw their own language of national security and fear-mongering right back in their faces. I'd love to see Alan Grayson, Joe Sestak, or some other real hardass call out ex-VP Cheney and his cabal for lack of patriotism and for endangering the country for their pet ideological peeve -- in essence, putting hatred of gays above their country. And to mince no words about it. Being that blunt isn't terribly presidential -- for anyone -- but that's why we need street fighters as well.)