We have known for some time that the culture of the military is being threatened by social experimentation.  In the aftermath of the chaotic debt ceiling debate, the military itself is at risk—tied to the tracks in front of speeding train called the “Debt Doomsday Express.”

Once again President Obama is using the military to get around political opposition−this time putting the armed forces in peril in order force Congress to vote for higher taxes. 

At the same time, the Obama Administration is pushing hard for the LGBT Left Agenda in the Pentagon, the courts, and in Congress.  These headlines are linked to articles in this edition of CMR E-Notes:

A.  Congress Threatens Draconian National Security Budget Cuts

B.  Obama, Panetta, and Mullen “Certify” LGBT Law in the Military

C.  Congress Approves Helpful Amendments to Defense Bills

D.  CMR Analysis of DoD IG Report: White House Misused the Military

E.  Ninth Circuit Lifts Stay on Rogue Ruling in Log Cabin Case

F.  Congress Resists Push to “Certify” Repeal of the Gays-in-Military Law

G. “Diversity” Training, "Zero Tolerance" of Dissent and the "Malehook" Convention

By year’s end we could see national security pitted against domestic special interests, but this is a false choice.  A strong military requires a strong economy, and economic prosperity depends on a strong national defense. 

National security has been put at risk, sending a message of weakness in a dangerous world.    With so much at stake, I hope you agree that we must do our best to get through this until the political situation changes.

Will you help CMR to engage in and report on this debate?  We are undertaking plans to work with other leading groups to defend the defenders of America.  CMR will also  record for history exactly how the unprecedented  LGBT Law for the military came to be.  Having used questionable tactics that abused his power, President Barack Obama owns the San Francisco Military that he has created.

CMR is not going away--But we need your help to continue our work.  Please consider sending a generous contribution today, so that CMR can keep the spotlight on what happens next.

With your help we will continue advocating high standards and sound policies for the only military we have—building support so that in the near future we can take our military back. 

« « « « «

A.  Congress Threatens Draconian National Security Budget Cuts

How Will the “Super Committee” Define “Success?”

Under the emergency legislation just passed, a 12-member Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction has been appointed to produce a plan to reduce the deficit by 1.5 trillion by November 23.  Although Republicans insist that tax increases will not be part of that package, it would take only a single Republican to approve a "deal" that includes tax hikes. 

If the bi-partisan committee deadlocks evenly along partisan lines, or if Congress fails to approve the entire package as presented for a vote without the option to filibuster or make amendments, a built-in trigger mechanism will impose $1.2 trillion in budget cuts over ten years.  Half of that amount, approximately $500-$600 billion in addition to about $350-$400 billion in cuts over a decade that the Defense Department is already absorbing, would come from defense and related homeland security, veterans, foreign aid and intelligence budgets,  The remaining cuts have would come from “discretionary domestic programs,” not entitlements. 

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has referred to this trigger as the “doomsday mechanism.”  All military departments are downsizing to accommodate initial pre-debt-ceiling-debate cuts of.  Subtracting approximately $900 billion would expose the DoD to what Panetta described as “catastrophic risks.”  These articles ring alarm bells about what our military is facing:

• John Bolton: Why Tea Party Should Resist Gutting Defense
• Michael Angley, Big Peace: A Doomsday Scenario That Would Make Dr. Strangelove Envious
• Time:  A Military Teetering on the “Ragged Edge”
• Reuters:  General Dempsey warns against deep defense cuts
• Heritage Morning Bell: The Spending Threat to Our National Defense

CMR supported the “Cut, Cap, Balance” Resolution, which might have solved the debt problem, but the Senate did not concur.

The “Morning Bell” of the Heritage Foundation warns, “Sadly, some liberals view our nation’s national security as a bargaining chip and fail to recognize that (1) defense spending is not the problem, and (2) The cuts put our troops and our national security at risk.  Without adequate security, our nation will begin an unavoidable decline and lose superpower status.”

Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy provides more perspective:

• Don’t Hollow Out the Military

 “Since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, conservatives have succeeded by adhering to a

platform that rests firmly on three legs: smaller government, faith and family, and a strong national defense. These three legs do not merely represent a political coalition; they are three necessary components of a strong and secure America.  The absence of any one of the three would diminish our national strength and increase our vulnerability to enemies, foreign and domestic.”

B.  Obama, Panetta, and Mullen “Certify” LGBT Law in the Military

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Lets Down the Troops

In his first official act as Secretary of Defense on July 22, Leon Panetta joined with President Barack Obama and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen in signing a a message to Congress “certifying” that repeal of the law regarding homosexuals in the military would do no harm to our military.

• CNN: In 60 Days, Gays Will be Allowed to Serve Openly in Military
• Seattle Times: Ban on Gays in Military to End

The document has no credibility, but it will have harmful consequences.  Having pulled the trigger for final repeal 60 days later, starting on September 21, President Barack Obama will be responsible for all problems that will occur in his self-created San Francisco/LGBT Military. 

The Center for Military Readiness criticized the "certification" travesty with an immediate news release, which was quoted by several major newspapers and networks. 

President Obama signed the LGBT Law on a hot Friday afternoon, making it less likely that anyone would report on the serious social problems expected to ensue.  This action, which was nothing to be proud of, was an obvious political payoff to activists of the (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) LGBT Left.  The prize was delivered at the expense of combat soldiers and Marines whose voices were deliberately ignored during last year’s Pentagon “Comprehensive Review Working Group” process that, we know now, was put on just for show.

When DoD officials and the military service chiefs were called to testify before the 112^th Congress House Armed Services Committee in April, they testified that training for implementation of the new policy was a big success.  But a single-hour PowerPoint briefing proves nothing.  When asked specific questions about numerous “thorny issues” during April hearings, the same Defense Department witnesses answered many questions with variations of "I don't know."

HASC Chairman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon questioned whether the armed services are ready for repeal. “The president's certification culminates a flawed repeal assessment and adoption process and as such the House Armed Services Committee will continue to conduct vigorous oversight.  I am calling on the administration to immediately release to Congress each of the assessments performed by the services on the impact of repeal on their forces and all the regulations and policy documents that demonstrate the questions about implementation have been resolved."

We appreciate Chairman McKeon’s oversight, which is all the more necessary because the administration has not provided to Congress any of the specific regulations spelling out the actual consequences of LGBT Law.  PowerPoint slides used in training are not regulations.  The political situation does not permit a “repeal of the repeal” right now, but members of the 112^th Congress have approved defense bill amendments that will help to mitigate the damage.

C.  House Votes: No Funds for DOMA Violations or LGBT Chaplain Training

The House of Representatives has approved two amendments to the Defense Appropriations Bill, H.R. 2219, sponsored by Representatives Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Dan Burton (R-IN), and by freshman Tim Huelskamp (R-KS).  The amendments, which affirm congressional support for traditional marriage and for religious liberty, are in addition to the three previously approved on June 6 by the House in the Defense Authorization Bill, which were sponsored by Representatives Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Todd Akin (R-MO), and Vicky Hartzler (R-OK).

More information on each of the five amendments, including vote tallies that show how your member of Congress voted, are linked in this article:

House Acts to Mitigate the Consequences of LGBT Law in Military

CMR is grateful to the members of Congress who showed leadership on these five amendments.  We were pleased to support their efforts with background information on why they were necessary.  We trust that members of the House will make sure that these measures are retained in their respective conference committees and passed into law.

D.  CMR Analysis of DoD IG Report: White House Misused the Military

On June 29 CMR released an eye-opening Policy Analysis of a Department of Defense Inspector General Report that raises serious questions about the activities of the Pentagon’s Comprehensive Review Working Group (CRWG).                

The CRWG panel, which was set up by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in March 2010, conducted what was expected to be a “study” of ways to implement repeal of the 1993 gays-in-the-military law, always mislabeled “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”  But this was not a “study” at all—the results of the panel’s work were pre-determined and strategically leaked to media in order to mislead Congress and rush the vote in the lame-duck session last December.

We know this because of the findings included in the DoD Inspector General Report, which the Center for Military Readiness released to the media with a detailed CMR Policy Analysis:

DoD Inspector General Exposes Improper Activities to Repeal Gays in the Military Law (“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”)

A two-page summary of the CMR Policy Analysis, including excerpts from the DoD Inspector General Report, is available here.

The 2010 Working Group process featured a survey of 400,000 military personnel, but the results were pre-scripted in advance.  According to the DoD IG, as early as the July 4 weekend, Defense Department General Counsel and CRWG co-chairman Jeh Johnson was polishing the Executive Summary of the report, including its conclusion that the troops were not concerned about repeal.  This was several days before the online survey of the troops even began. 

Someone with access to the report successfully leaked to the media the skewed perception that “70%” of military people were just fine with repeal of the law.  But according to the DoD IG, the single survey quoted could have been calculated differently to show 82% of military people opposed.  The DoD IG Report noted, “The purpose of the Pentagon Working Group process was not to ‘study’ the issue, but ‘to gain momentum in support of a legislative change during the ‘lame duck’ session of Congress following the November 2, 2010, elections.’” (p. 20). 

The “perception management” tactic worked to misrepresent results of the military survey.  The misleading report leaked to the Washington Post led to a Senate reversal and repeal of the 1993 law during the December lame-duck session.  (In two previous votes, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) successfully blocked repeal.)  LGBT activists who benefited from the deception and dishonesty employed by the CRWG are working hard to airbrush the DoD IG report, which contradicts the story that military leaders and personnel were not concerned about the repeal.

These are some of the commentaries about the travesty revealed in the DoD IG Report:

• WorldNetDaily, “Feds Find Fix Was in on ‘Study’ of Homosexuality in the Ranks”
• Frank Gaffney, Washington Times: “A Smoking Gun – How Congress Was Duped Into Repealing Military Homosexual Ban”
• Washington Times, “Inside the Ring”
• Politico/Seattle Post-Intelligencer: DoD IG Can’t Trace DADT Leak
  

Were it not for CMR and the source who sent the DoD IG report to us, the document never would have come to light.  History requires that the truth be known.

E.  Ninth Circuit Lifts Stay on Rogue Ruling in Log Cabin Case

In western federal courts, within the territory assigned to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, LGBT activists are benefiting from the inept arguments of Justice Department lawyers who are not making the strongest arguments in defense of the 1993 law, due to the radical ideology of Attorney General Eric Holder.

On July 1, Holder filed an astonishing brief arguing that the courts must treat “sexual orientation” as a special class, in the same way that “heightened scrutiny” applies in racial discrimination cases.  The Holder brief was filed in opposition to another brief that Congress had filed in defense of the DOMA.  (Golinski v. U.S. Office of Personnel Management) 

On July 6, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a stay that it had previously imposed on a worldwide injunction issued by District Judge Virginia Phillips in a case brought by the deceptively-named Log Cabin Republicans.  In September 2010, Judge Phillips exceeded her authority when she declared the 1993 law regarding homosexuals unconstitutional, and ordered the DoD to stop enforcing it.  In effect, Judge Philips was declaring herself the “Supreme Judicial Commander of the U.S. Military.”

Within days, the Ninth Circuit panel decision cited the Holder brief in the Golinski case in a ruling lifting the stay in the Log Cabin case.  The decision was peculiar because it upheld the constitutionality of a revised gays-in-the-military law that the lower court had not even reviewed:

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Lifts Stay on Rogue Log Cabin Ruling

F.  Congress Resists Push to “Certify” Repeal of the Gays-in-Military Law

On June 2, 2011, House Armed Services Committee Chairman “Buck” McKeon and Personnel Subcommittee Chairman Joe Wilson sent an important letter to President Barack Obama, Secretary Gates, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, and the four military service chiefs. 

The two-page  McKeon/Wilson letter asked President Obama to direct an adjustment to the process for certifying repeal, to include the “individual written views” of the Chiefs of Staff  in advance, with emphasis on close combat and special operations forces.  The McKeon/Wilson letter also stated in no uncertain terms that the views and perspectives of the military service chiefs "should not be withheld from Congress or hidden from the American people."

On June 16, Rep. Duncan Hunter, a veteran of the Iraq war and member of the HASC, sent to President Barack Obama a respectful letter that calls on President Obama to “refrain from transmitting certification [of the repeal] until Congress has had sufficient time to review pending legislative matters of policy and law.” Thirty Republican colleagues co-signed the Hunter letter:  Joe Wilson (SC), Roscoe Bartlett (MD), Todd Akin (MO), Trent Franks (AZ), Jeff Miller (FL), Randy Forbes (VA), Steve Palazzo (MS), Allen West (FL), Walter Jones (NC), Austin Scott (GA), Mike Coffman (CO), John Fleming (LA), Vicky Hartzler (MO), Doug Lamborn (CO), Joe Pitts (PA), Steve King (IA), Gregg Harper (MS), Steve Southerland (FL), Phil Roe (TN), James Lankford (OK), Randy Neugebauer (TX), Scott Garrett (NJ), Chris Smith (NJ), Tim Huelskamp (KS), Sue Myrick (NC), Martha Roby (AL),  Jeff Landry (LA), Steve Scalise (LA), Virginia Foxx (NC), and Daniel E. Lungren (CA). 

This is a two-page summary the CMR prepared, setting forth reasons why congressional oversight of this issue is so important to our military:

• Why Repeal of the Gays-in-the-Military Law Cannot be “Certified” as Harmless

G. “Diversity” Training, "Zero Tolerance" of Dissent and the "Malehook" Convention

As CMR has been predicting for months, the imposition of LGBT Law in our military ultimately will require universal training to promote acceptance of the new paradigm.  This article sheds light on the type of LGBT sensitivity/diversity training that the DoD is likely to impose on the troops if President Obama’s LGBT Law for the military goes into effect:

• Washington Times:  USDA Gay Sensitivity Training Seeks Larger Audience

CMR also predicted that "zero tolerance" policies would ramp up pressures to discharge troops who dissent for any reason.  That policy change, unfortunately, has already begun.  WorldNetDaily was the first to report on the consequences of “zero tolerance” of servicemembers who do not support the LGBT agenda:

• WorldNetDaily: “Staff Sergeant May Lose Career Over ‘Gay’ Indoctrination

According to the Daily Caller, the Central Intelligence Agency, formerly headed by now-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, has agreed to co-sponsor a Las Vegas convention called the “Outserve Armed Forces Leadership Summit.”

• Daily Caller: CIA to Sponsor LGBT Advocacy Group Summit
• Washington Times:  Group Wants Military Recruiters to Target Gays After Repeal

OutServe, which describes itself as an underground military gay group, wants recruiters to reach out to the homosexual community in the same way they target blacks, Latinos and women.  That will probably be interpreted to mean affirmative action quotas, which are always denied by officials who enforce them.

Given the conduct on display at "gay pride" events, behavior at what could be called the "Malehook" convention could rival in infamy the 1991 Tailhook convention in Las Vegas. 

Official support for the event also would be inappropriate because the military does not allow the establishment of special interest factions within its ranks.  Nor does our military allow labor unions to advocate for uniformed "employees," as some European militaries do.  Labor unions or internal pressure groups and factions potentially could do great damage to unit cohesion and readiness for combat that is, after all, a "hazardous work environment."

Anyone who believes that implementation of the repeal would be “easy” is not paying attention.  CMR will continue to report on consequences of the LGBT Law in coming months.

* * * * *

The Center for Military Readiness is an independent, non-partisan 501(c)(3) public policy organization that specializes in military social issues.   More information is available at www.cmrlink.org.