The US should not rush into a change as large as repealing the ban on gays serving openly in the military without making sure the people it affects are on board, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said on Wednesday.
Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said an 11-month study into the effects of lifting the ban would examine practical questions such as how the change would affect people who decide to remain in the service when their contracts expire.
“There is very little objective data on this. It is filled as you know with emotion and strongly held opinions and beliefs,” Mullen said a day after announcing his own opposition to the ban.
“That’s the work we have to do over the course of this year,” he said. “We need to understand that in terms of what the senior military leadership’s principal concern is, which is the readiness and military effectiveness of the force.”
The study is seen by advocates of a quick repeal as an unnecessary delay, or a political convenience designed to stretch any real action to lift the ban until after congressional elections this fall.
Answering critics from both parties during testimony on next year’s proposed defense budget, Gates offered his own resume as a cautionary tale. He said he has broad management experience, having run three large public institutions — the CIA, Texas A&M University and the Department of Defense.
“In each of those I have led and managed change,” Gates told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. “I’ve done it smart, and I’ve done it stupid. Happily, I think, the stupid was early.”
Gates said he learned that imposing change from on high does not work, and he is determined not to repeat that mistake.
Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said later that Gates was referring to a period in the early 1980s when he headed the CIA’s analytical division and made policy changes and sometimes harsh assessments that he came to regret.
“Stupid was trying to impose a policy from the top without any regard for the views of the people who were going to be affected or the people who would have to effect the policy change,” Gates said.
Gates has commissioned two reviews, one by the outside consultant Rand Corp and one to be led by a four-star Army general and the Pentagon’s top lawyer. The reviews will look at attitudes about openly gay service among the armed forces, with particular emphasis on those in combat.
The reviews are supposed to look at the effect that lifting the ban could have on soldiers’ trust and reliance on one another, as well as practical and legal issues, military officials said.
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