Ha.
gfn.com - Spotlight News: As War Continues Gay Discharges Plummet
The number of gay men and lesbians dismissed from the military under the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy has dropped to its lowest level in nine years, according to a report by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, or SLDN, a gay military advocacy group.
Last year, the military discharged 787 gay men and lesbians, a figure that marks a 17 percent decrease from 2002, and a 39 percent drop from 2001, according to the SLDN.
Who knows? Maybe if the mess in Iraq and Afghanistan and Haiti and wherever else our desperately overextended military has commited itself continue long enough, they'll formally get rid of the ban because they can't get enough warm bodies otherwise.
... Yes, I know. I slay me, too.
Purely a side note: I wonder how long it will be before the selective draft everyone says they don't want but are yet preparing for winds up on the front burner. After all, unless they stick a very long term stop-loss order on the military, for the foreseeable future, expiring enlistments are likely to far exceed new ones. (Although there is, of course, the small issue that once your active enlistment is done, you're supposed to go into the reserves for a set period. Just imagine how much fun that must be! Your enlistment is over, you're looking forward to becoming a civilian, and the government says, "Um .. no, no, we're mobilizing your reserves unit. You're coming back here. Congrats!")
Posted by iain at March 24, 2004 03:56 PM
