Topic: Iraq
You sometimes have to choose what your values really are.
It comes down to the issue of what is really more important.
In the past two years, the Department of Defense has discharged thirty-seven linguists from the Defense Language Institute for being gay. Many studied Arabic. At a time of heightened need for intelligence specialists, thirty-seven linguists were judged to be of no use because of their homosexuality.
The Washington Post profiles one.
The Post doesn't discuss the Pentagon abandoning plans to use a group of Sephardic Jews in New York to take up the slack, as that branch of Judaism offers scholars who know Arabic extremely well. In that case the Pentagon denies claims that they are anti-Semitic, saying that they felt using Jewish translators would anger the Arab world. Perhaps so.
The background is this: Historically, military leaders have argued that allowing gays to serve would hurt unit cohesion and recruiting efforts, and infringe on the privacy rights of heterosexuals. In 1993, at the urging of President Clinton, Congress agreed to soften the outright ban on gays in the military with a policy that came to be known as "don't ask, don't tell," which allowed them to serve as long as they kept their sexual orientation secret.
The Defense Language Institute, at the Presidio of Monterey, is the primary foreign-language school for the Department of Defense. For decades, Russian was the dominant language taught. But since Sept. 11, 2001, the size of the Arabic class has soared. Of the roughly 3,800 students enrolled at the DLI, 832 are learning Arabic, 743 Korean, 353 Chinese and 301 Russian, with the remaining students scattered in other languages. ... The DLI estimates the value of its 63-week Arabic language program -- not including room, board and the service member's salary -- at $33,500.
Anyway, this is an interesting read.
How 'Don't Tell' Translates
The Military Needs Linguists, But It Doesn't Want This One
By Anne Hull, Washington Post Staff Writer, Wednesday, December 3, 2003; Page A01
From Hull:
Historically, military leaders have argued that allowing gays to serve would hurt unit cohesion and recruiting efforts, and infringe on the privacy rights of heterosexuals. In 1993, at the urging of President Clinton, Congress agreed to soften the outright ban on gays in the military with a policy that came to be known as "don't ask, don't tell," which allowed them to serve as long as they kept their sexual orientation secret.Hull's Example:
Cathleen Glover was cleaning the pool at the Sri Lankan ambassador's residence recently when she heard the sound of Arabic drifting through the trees. Glover earned $11 an hour working for a pool-maintenance company, skimming leaves and testing chlorine levels in the backyards of Washington. No one knew about her past. But sometimes the past found her.The government's position:
Glover recognized the sound instantly. It was the afternoon call to prayer coming from a mosque on Massachusetts Avenue. She held still, picking out familiar words and translating them in her head.
She learned Arabic at the Defense Language Institute (DLI), the military's premier language school, in Monterey, Calif. Her timing as a soldier was fortuitous: Around her graduation last year, a Government Accounting Office study reported that the Army faced a critical shortage of linguists needed to translate intercepts and interrogate suspects in the war on terrorism.
"I was what the country needed," Glover said.
She was, and she wasn't. Glover is gay. She mastered Arabic but couldn't handle living a double life under the military policy known as "don't ask, don't tell." After two years in the Army, Glover, 26, voluntarily wrote a statement acknowledging her homosexuality.
Confronted with a shortage of Arabic interpreters and its policy banning openly gay service members, the Pentagon had a choice to make.
Which is how former Spec. Glover came to be cleaning pools instead of sitting in the desert, translating Arabic for the U.S. government.
On average, three or four service members are discharged each day because they are gay. Most are discharged for making statements about their sexuality, and most are younger than twenty-five. The Army says the discharged linguists were casualties of their own failure to meet a known policy. "We have standards," said Harvey Perritt, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Monroe, Va. "We have physical standards, academic standards. There's no difference between administering these standards and administering 'don't ask, don't tell.' The rules are the rules."Okay, fine.
Posted by Alan at 08:47 PST
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Updated: Tuesday, 9 December 2003 13:47 PST
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