WorldNetDaily has launched a petition to oppose the repeal of the military’s don’t ask, don’t tell policy. (The inevitable reader-fleecing letter campaign is presumably still in the works.) It’s back up with the usual misleading claptrap, mainly in repeating dubious scare tactics by opponents while omitting evidence to the contrary.
For instance, the petition states:
Whereas, Sen. John McCain has warned, based on the Pentagon’s statistics, that 264,600 men and women would likely “leave the military earlier than they had planned” if open homosexuality is allowed, and some military analysts say the number leaving could well be double that, thereby endangering the viability of America’s all-voluntary military;
Whereas, in another poll conducted by the Military Times – asking “If the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy is overturned and gays are allowed to serve openly, how would you respond?” – nearly 10 percent said, “I would not re-enlist or extend my service” while another 14 percent said, “I would consider not re-enlisting or extending my service”;
In fact, as we’ve detailed, a 2003 article in Parameters, the U.S. Army War College Quarterly found that “[n]ot a single one of the 104 experts interviewed believed that the Australian, Canadian, Israeli, or British decisions to lift their gay bans … led to increased difficulties in recruiting or retention.” WND makes no mention of this study.
The petition goes on to “demand that the lame-duck U.S. Senate honor the clear wishes of the voters they serve, as well as the wishes of the U.S. military, by immediately ceasing its efforts to overturn the proven and time-tested warrior culture of the finest fighting force in history.” But “the clear wishes of the voters” is that the policy be repealed: A Pew Research Center poll last month found that 58 percent said they favored the military shifting its policy to allow gays to serve openly — about the same percentage who have supported a policy change in polls over the last five years.