Action Predicted on 'Don't Ask'

Responding to an offer by Barack Obama's transition team to answer ordinary Americans' questions, "Thaddeus" from Lansing, Mich., asked whether the incoming president planned to lift the ban on openly gay people serving in the military.

"Thaddeus, you don't hear a politician give a one-word answer much. But it's 'yes,'" Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a video posted on the change.gov Website shortly before the official start of the Obama era.

But translating that one-word answer into reality without setting off a repeat of the 1993 circus on Capitol Hill will test the rookie president's skills and resolve.

Even longtime advocates of scrapping the ban differ over strategy.

Lawrence Korb, an assistant defense secretary under President Reagan, thinks the Obama administration should include repeal of "Don't Ask" with other proposed changes in personnel policies — such as adjustments in the size of the Army and Marines and in rules governing women in combat — when it sends its defense authorization bill to Congress.

"You don't want to have (repealing the ban) as a single debate," Korb said. "You want it taken up as part of broader questions on personnel issues.

"If Obama makes a strong statement at some point, it will make it easier to pass. I think it will be done by this Congress," Korb added.

But Aaron Belkin, a military scholar at the University of California at Santa Barbara's Palm Center, outlined a different approach to the Obama transition team: Issue a presidential order limited to suspending discharges of gay soldiers who are linguists fluent in Arabic.

"You signal to the gay community in a real way that you are serious," Belkin says, adding that several military lawyers agree Obama has the authority to take the step.

"You undermine opponents because who would dare criticize keeping Arab linguists in the military. And you get the military used to gay people serving openly in stages."

Aubrey Sarvis, head of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, sides with Korb, arguing against creating a "hierarchy" of discrimination and instead banking on the many differences between 1993 and today.

Sarvis notes, for example, that Bill Clinton started off with an antagonistic relationship with the military.

Obama, in contrast, frames ending the ban in terms of a team goal: Whitehouse.gov — the official Website of the president — states, "The president will work with military leaders to repeal the current policy and ensure it helps accomplish our national defense goals."

Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, has sent signals, as well.

Last May, a West Point cadet asked Mullen what happens if a president wants to change "Don't Ask." Mullen replied, "It's a law, and we follow it." But Mullen added that if the law does change, the military would obey that, too, the American Forces Press Service reported.

Meanwhile, high-profile opponents of openly gay soldiers in 1993 — including then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell and then-Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Sam Nunn — now say it's time for a fresh look.

The big unknown — whether Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates will publicly side with Obama — may be answered soon.

If Mullen and Gates march in step with their new commander in chief, opponents of repeal would suddenly be at odds with the Pentagon.

Deb Price of The Detroit News writes the first nationally syndicated column on gay issues. To find out more about Deb Price and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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