The contempt that wingnuts like Elaine Donnelly of the hilariously named “Center for Military Readiness” have for the people they supposedly represent is mindblowing. Here’s Elaine reacting to news that the procedures required to implement DADT repeal, including sessions on how to treat and respect gay troops, will actually be completed with all units, even those currently on the ground in war zones:
Elaine Donnelly, who heads the Center for Military Readiness, said it is “ridiculous” to train combat Army soldiers and Marines as they are engage in daily combat with tenacious insurgents.
“It’s absurd because the military has more important things to think about in that dangerous part of the world,” she said. “For the administration to say this is more important than even with the troops we’re trying to train in that part of the world, I think it shows flawed priorities at best. It is ridiculous.”
Apparently in Elaine’s mind, combat troops just are too stupid to handle another thing on their plates, especially something so egregiously offensive as “not hating the gay person who might save your life.”
Luckily, the top enlisted commander in Afghanistan, Sgt. Maj. Marvin Hill, is a hell of a lot smarter than Elaine Donnelly:
“I have heard about the training that will be forthcoming to the battlefield,” Sgt. Hill told Pentagon reporters via a teleconference from Kabul.
“We will take our directions from the Department of Defense, from the secretary of defense, the chairman, as well as the service chiefs of each service. Our plan is to take their direction, and we’re going to execute that training right here on the battlefield.”
No unit is exempted, he said.
“Our goal is to not allow a unit to return to home station and have the unit responsible for that,” he said. “While we own those soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, we’re going to execute that training on the ground. We hope that it will have little impact on their combat and security operations here.”
[…]
Sgt. Hill is an outspoken proponent of ending the ban.
“If there are people who cannot deal with the change, then they’re going to have to do what’s best for their troops and best for the organization and best for the military service and exit the military service, so that we can move forward – if that’s the way that we have to go,” Sgt. Hill said on the television show, “Washington Watch” in December.
And again: if troops in combat can’t handle fighting along gay people [hint: the vast majority of them are fine with it], they probably don’t have what it takes to defend our country.
Of course, Elaine Donnelly probably thinks she knows better than Sgt. Maj. Marvin Hill, as well. How pathetic.
