Igor Volsky has a handy round-up of this morning’s DADT hearings over at the Wonk Room, and provides this compilation of Republican talking points, and how they were refuted by reality:
– CLAIM: Should not lift ban in a time of war.
MULLEN RESPONDS: I find the argument that war is not the time to change to be antithetical with our experiences since 2001. War does not stifle change, it demands it. It does not make change harder, it facilities it.
– CLAIM: Combat troops believe repeal would be disruptive.
HAM RESPONDS: A subsequent question to that was, under intense combat, what would your response be. And we saw the negative rates drop dramatically.
– CLAIM: 28% response rate is too low.
HAM RESPONDS: Twenty-eight percent overall response rate is well within the historical range of Department of Defense surveys of military personnel.
– CLAIM: 265,000 servicemembers would leave the military.
GATES RESPONDS: Based on the survey itself, experience would dramatically lower those numbers. If I believed that a quarter of a million people would leave the military would leave immediately, if given the opportunity, I would certainly have second thoughts about that.
– CLAIM: Servicemembers should have been asked if they believe policy should be changed.
GATES RESPONDS: I can’t think of a single precedent in American history of doing a referendum of the american armed forces on a policy issue.
Why is John McCain so confused about how the military works?
Here’s Igor’s video round-up of the hearings:
