Wow, that was quick.
Only a few hours ago did I mention Peter Pace in conjunction with Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Now, he's gone. At risk of committing the post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy, I don't see how it isn't possible to conclude that I was directly responsible for this change. I don't know what to think about Pace, aside from the fact that he seemed more concerned about gay men showering with straight guys than he did with the war in Iraq. I'm not sure to what extent he influenced Bush's thinking on Iraq--being as he was the friggin' Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I would imagine he had a great deal of influence on W's thinking. That tells me that his departure can only help matters.
I don't know anything about the new guy, Admiral Mike Mullen, although he is Gates's pick, and I put somewhat more stock in Robert Gates's judgment than virtually anyone else's in the Administration. Probably because he hasn't been around long enough to disappoint me. I'm not sure if he's as much of a anti-gay agitator, but I still don't think Bush signs a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Not when he's already on such thin ice with his supporters. Not when some of those supporters include groups that can legitimately be described as gay-hating and believe that any protection for homosexuals: from anti-discrimination laws to hate crime legislation, anything that benefits gays and lesbians must be wrong from their perspective, because it means that we're "legitimizing homosexuality". Uh, how does not wanting people to be denied home loans solely because they're gay legitimize their conduct? And how does denying them such services delegitimize it? It does not seem very American to me to deliberately deny people the same rights and prerogatives as everyone else on account of their engaging in acts that a pissy minority doesn't approve of, but that's the America of the religious right. Moving to Canada might seem like a good alternative, but they've got their own Bush clone as PM up there. We have to fight these people here, and there is a cycle for movements such as this one: power leads to overreaching which leads to no power. I'd say we're on stage two of that cycle right now.
