Though President Obama signed the repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ Wednesday, critics of repeal say important questions remain about the external problems the new policy may create, such as those revolving around gay troops serving in Muslim countries.
Will DADT repeal aid America in pushing these countries down a path of cultural openness, or inspire a harmful backlash? This concern, critics say, was not dealt with in the Pentagon’s report on the DADT repeal and was overlooked in the rush to pass the repeal legislation.
“That is a question those of us working with the Military Culture Coalition put to the working group on more than one occasion and it is not addressed in the report,” Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, told The Daily Caller. “It is one of many issues that were not addressed even though we insisted, we sent them a formal letter and a list of issues that they needed to discuss, and that was one of them which they very pointedly left out.”
Clarke Cooper, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans and an Iraq veteran, told TheDC that the report did not deal with Donnelly’s question because it was largely about the policy’s internal effects. According to Cooper, the question is a non-issue as gays have been serving abroad already for years as American diplomats, CIA operatives, and in foreign armies.
“Having gay officials in Middle Eastern countries first of all is not new,” Cooper said. “Another thing is when one looks at our allies in multinational force Iraq and MFI, or in ISA in Afghanistan, there are already western gay and lesbian service members serving in those capacities.”
Cooper acknowledged the fact that more traditional Muslims will be not like the development, but in terms of making the bad guys uncomfortable, having gays in the ranks can only be a benefit, he said.
“So is it going to be an issue for some? Maybe, but I’ll tell you, as a intelligence officer, I would recommend that we use it as a part of our psychological operations or our information operations. If it pisses off the Taliban, getting shot by a gay guy? Great,” he exclaimed.
Former United States Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Jed Babbin told TheDC that the repeal raises more questions than it answers about America’s ability to execute the War on Terror effectively.
“Can gays serve as military advisers to Muslims?” he asked in an e-mail to TheDC. “What about Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Afghanistan? Will gays be able to be out among the Muslims and how much will that drive Muslims away from the nation-building effort?”
Babbin was especially concerned about the propaganda and recruitment value DADT repeal will have for terrorists.
“Propaganda that says gays are among (and the propagandists will say they amount to all) the US troops may turn more young Muslims into terrorists than Guantanamo Bay’s prison ever did…..The burden on our guys – to gain confidence and provide security – is increased many-fold by having to overcome the Muslim intolerance of homosexuality,” wrote Babbin to TheDC.
Indeed propaganda is something to keep in mind, according to Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD). Jasser told TheDC that, while the AIFD did not take a position on the repeal of DADT, there is a good probability that jihadi propagandists will likely use the presence of gays in uniform against the United States.
“It will be used in order to paint American secularism as against their Islamic values, so it will be no different than other stereotypes about the West –as being anti-religious, anti-Islam — that have been used in the past to feed the anti-American military propaganda,” Jasser said, noting that the real world impact will be unknown until the policy is actually implemented.
Jasser added that demonstrating cultural openness might be a good thing in the long run.
