Splashes from Beyond the Ocean: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

“Is it true that gays and lesbians are allowed to serve in the American army?”

That’s what an ex-student of mine asked me out of the blue on Facebook a few months ago. He’s from Kazakhstan and now studies in Italy. A smart boy, but from a conservative religious family. I don’t know what kind of information from the international news current had reached him, but since his question betrayed genuine surprise, I took it upon me to explain to him the so-called “don’t ask, don’t tell” principle. According to this rule, the American armed forces cannot make you reveal your sexual orientation. But you in turn need to keep quiet about it. If you happen to inadvertently admit you are homo- instead of heterosexual, your army career is over. This principle, which encourages hypocrisy, was voted in 1993 by way of a compromise. The American army officially banned homosexuals from service around the end of World War II, when homosexuality was classified as a mental disorder. As president, Bill Clinton promised to abolish this last act of group discrimination. Faced with mass Republican opposition, however, he was forced to take a step back. That’s how the semi-solution known as “don’t ask, don’t tell” came into being.

My inquisitive student continued to inquire what my opinion was on this issue. I told him I was against all forms of discrimination. The eradication of homosexuality in the army was impossible, just as its liquidation in life was inconceivable. I even joked that it was hard to imagine anything looking gayer than soldiers stomping the ground in their shiny boots while marching in a parade (like the ones held in Russia), or marines conceitedly strolling along the shore in their white uniforms (like the ones in San Diego).

He ignored my joke and continued asking questions, obviously shocked at my liberal views. “But doesn’t homosexuality spoil military discipline?” I said I didn’t think sexual orientation was one of discipline’s key components. Our conversation on the topic ended soon thereafter.

I had forgotten about him until the beginning of December, when the U.S. Senate refused to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.” This produced a furious wave of discussions in the media. A few days ago, however, a surprising — but obviously carefully planned — vote successfully turned the table, putting an end to this inherited situation.

Arguing for and against the ban on homosexual soldiers in the army is just one of those absolutely meaningless ideological debates that periodically appear in American political life, draining social energy for nothing. The Democrats and Obama won this one: The problem was resolved just as elementary justice and sane reason dictate. But they had to pay in legal compromises for the Republican votes they needed in the Senate. For example, Obama’s party agreed to continue the policy of tax deductions not only for the middle class, but also for those on a salary exceeding $250,000, which is clearly a very bad idea, given the national budget deficit. Unfortunately, nothing can be done about it.

The Democrats also lost the vote when it was decided whether citizenship should be given to those illegal immigrants who had been smuggled into the country as minors and had graduated from American schools. All those young people who didn’t have criminal records would be eligible to become citizens on the condition that they either enrolled at a university or joined the army. This otherwise commendable idea died out, leaving thousands of young men and women in the in-between instead of sending them to the lecture halls or Afghanistan, where they could work to deserve their citizenship.

All of this made me remember the next investigator’s report on how money is spent in Afghanistan, which was published unannounced and not surrounded by too much frenzy just this week. According to that report, at least $56 billion have been poured into different civil projects in the country. At least half of this sum, however, has sunk into someone’s deep pockets without making a significant contribution to humanity.

The tax-payers in the U.S. at least now know that their money is wasted without racial, religious or sexual discrimination.