Deroy Murdock has a revealing column on a poor choice of priorities in the U.S. military:

Name the greater risk to national security: patriotic military translators who happen to be homosexual or anti-American Islamofascist terrorists who happen to be homicidal. If you picked the latter, thanks for putting U.S. safety first. Alas, the Pentagon disagrees.

According to new Defense Department data, between fiscal years 1998 and 2003, 20 Arabic- and six Farsi-language experts were booted from the military under President Bill Clinton’s 1993 “don’t ask/don’t tell” policy. These GIs trained at the elite Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif. Had they graduated — assuming 40-hour workweeks and two-week vacations — they could have dedicated 52,000 man-hours annually to interrogate Arab-speaking bomb builders, interpret intercepted enemy communications or transmit reassuring words to bewildered Baghdad residents.

Preparation for these vital activities ends when a dedicated warrior is found to be gay. Under “don’t ask,” if that GI’s homosexuality becomes evident, he must stop conjugating verbs and head home.

It seems to me that we shouldn’t be turning away any capable person who’s willing to serve our country, especially now. While integrating gay personnel may pose unique challenges to the military, we should remember that the military was at the forefront of racial integration. Segregation in the military ended years before it did in society as a whole, and it was a success.

The future of our nation depends upon the effectiveness of our armed services. Why artificially limit the pool of talent available to our military?