Military contractors benefit from DADT

[ck4829]

You follow orders, you have a skill that is needed desperately (Like translating Arabic for example), you want to serve your country through the military, and you are a decorated soldier.

There's just one problem...

You're gay.

Good luck staying in the armed services for very no matter how good of a soldier you may be.

But there is hope.

Private military contractors. There is not one major PMC around that does not have a non-discrimination policy towards gay employees. Coincidence?

Remember General Sheehan's recent testimony that gay soldiers were the cause of a massacre?

Well...

"Counter to his testimony, however, Sheehan served after retiring from the military for several years as a senior vice president with Bechtel Corp. - a company with a robust non-discrimination policy that includes sexual orientation where he worked until the past year. The company - which claims it is one of the largest government contractors - had more than $2 billion in extensive rebuilding contracts in Iraq from 2003-2006, sending employees into Iraq during times when their employees faced obvious difficulties and dangers.

After the hearing, Sheehan refused to address questions about whether he supported Bechtel's non-discrimination policy as it applied to employees working on military contracts in Iraq.

Aubrey Sarvis, the executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said that Bechtel and others often employ discharged gay and lesbian soldiers.

"That's the irony," Sarvis said. "They are discharged under 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and they go back as civilian contractors, often back to the same unit, back in Iraq, serving side by side ... in the same unit. Bechtel is among those.""

http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=40675

And here's something else too:

"It's bad enough that the federal government has decided that the Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal must be preceded by a year-long study. It will take twelve months for a group of policy wonks to figure out that letting already gay soldiers tell their comrades they are gay without risking their jobs will not irreparably harm troop functionality.

But, now, the wonks in charge of this study are actually employees of a private think tank, the RAND Corporation. That means that tax dollars are being funneled out of government so that a high priced team of private employees can figure out that troop integration -- a phenomenon practiced all over the world including in Israel and Canada and the United Kingdom -- won't lose any wars."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/emma-rubysachs/letting-a-private-think-t_b_485291.html

Sounds like there's more to the opposition to repealing DADT than "Because the Bible says that gays are bad!!1111one!", DADT is also a way for private military contractors to recruit good soldiers.

Sounds like conservatives and the Christian Right in particular are being duped by the military-industrial-complex... again.

[Ian David]

1. I suggested YEARS ago forming a gay-only mercenary group called Pinkwater.

You get discharged from the army under DADT and then make ten times as much money, working only the number of "tours" you want to. With full health and dental.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=221x45002