Don't Ask, Don't Tell ended for the first time last November, when Judge Virginia Phillips, after ruling the policy unconstitutional in September, 2010, issued an injunction barring its continued enforcement anywhere in the world a month later.
Don't Ask, Don't Tell ended again when President Obama signed into law a bill repealing the policy in December, or so most people thought and the press headlined.
Don't Ask, Don't Tell ended a third time last week, when the Ninth Circuit Court ordered that the stay of Judge Phillips' order they themselves had imposed be lifted immediately, so that neither dismissals (of which a few had taken place since December) nor investigations (of which many were rumored to have been initiated, or continued) could continue.
And despite rumors that the Department of Justice would seek to appeal the Ninth's order to the Supreme Court, they have not done so yet, so the order remains in place.
And now, after that long preamble, the breaking news!
"Today ((the Defense Department)) confirmed that the service secretaries, service chiefs and combatant commanders have submitted their assessments, Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez said in a statement provided to The Advocate. These assessments represent their best judgment, providing their recommendations, insight, concerns (if any) and advice regarding the status of their service's preparation for repeal.
The assessments will be reviewed by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen. President Obama asserted two weeks ago at an LGBT Pride Month reception at the White House that certification of DADT repeal will be completed in "weeks, not months." The contents of the assessment reports have not yet been made public.
So this is progress. Basically, there is no excuse left (aside from a debt ceiling crisis, massive unemployment, and three wars and two potential popular uprisings in the Middle East) for the certifications not to be issued post haste.
If and when Secretary of Defense Panetta, Joint Chiefs of Staff Mullen, and President Obama -- after reviewing these reports -- certify that repeal can take effect without endangering national security, then Don't Ask, Don't Tell will have been ended for the fourth time in a likely very public ceremony. Except it won't.
No, once they've signed off, Don't Ask, Don't Tell will officially end for the fifth and final time sixty days from the date of these certifications (1).
And then the law which implemented the policy, passed in 1993, will truly be no more. A future Congress could pass a new, similar law. Or a future President could issue executive orders implementing a similar policy, but the law commonly known as Don't Ask, Don't Tell will be history.
It (will have been) about time.
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(1) No, we're not even going to talk about the complications which might arise from the continuing court case, which could, conceivably, but not likely, end DADT for yet a sixth time someday...