NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/soc/motss/58575

Text File | 1993-01-27 | 3.4 KB | 75 lines

Newsgroups: soc.motss
Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!agate!ames!pacbell.com!rjwill6
From: [e-mail] (Rod Williams)
Subject: Re: Any word on military ban yet?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (Pacific Bell Netnews)
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, California
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 16:20:56 GMT
Lines: 63


Today's (1/26/93) New York Times has Clinton's meeting with
Aspin and the Joint Chiefs of Staff as its lead story.  They
never quite got around to stuff like Iraq and Somalia and
Bosnia -- the G/L ban took up the whole 2-hour meeting.
Clinton apparently said that he would not reverse his
position on lifting the ban.  The story quotes Pentagon aides
describing the Joint Chiefs' position as "bordering on
insubordination."  Gen. Colin Powell's office reported that
they'd received 681 calls yesterday urging that the ban be
kept in place, and 21 for lifting it.

One interesting paragraph:

    If Mr. Clinton issues an executive order, Congress could
    pass a law codifying the existing Pentagon policy that
    bans homosexuals.  But the President could then veto the
    law, and it is unlikely that supporters of the ban would
    ultimately have enough votes to override a veto.

The Times also ran a story on the history of the G/L ban,
noting that restrictions were put in place only after World
War 2, in which thousands of gay men served and fought with
distinction.  The story noted that dismissals have declined
in recent years "as many commanders stopped spending dwindling
resources on tracking down homosexuals."

In its lead editorial, The Times asks, "Who's in Charge of the
Military?" and urges Clinton to be firm and issue the executive
order immediately.  It argues that delay will only allow the
military and Religious Right to harden their positions and
marshal their forces to fight the change.  The editorial
closes...

    ...experience has shown that the encrusted culture of the
    military changes most positively when it has forceful
    leadership.  That can come only from the very top.  This is
    a chance for Mr. Clinton to show that the anti-war student
    from Arkansas has the spine to be Commander in Chief.

New York Times columnist (and former executive editor) Abe
Rosenthal takes Gen. Colin Powell to task for his opposition
to lifting the ban, advising Powell that his career and
position in Army was made possible only by Harry Truman's
executive order integrating the military in 1948 in the face
of similar opposition and bigotry.  His piece closes...

    So I have an answer for a question General Powell raised
    last month at Amercian University -- what can he tell a
    heterosexual youngster who comes in and says that in his
    private accommodations he prefers to have heterosexuals
    around him, not gays?

    General, I would ask him if he had been molested.  If not,
    I would tell him exactly what an Army colonel commanding
    the R.O.T.C. wartime unit at City College suggested to me
    when I asked him some uppity question for the campus paper.

    "Boy," he said, "get the hell out of my office."
--
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rod williams -=- pacific bell -=- san ramon, ca -=- [e-mail]
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