GENERALS OPPOSE LIFTING MILITARY BAN

Two top generals in the US military have expressed their concern about President Obama’s plan to lift the ban on gay and lesbian military personnel.

Speaking at Tuesday’s hearings held by the House Armed Services Committee on the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell ban, General George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of the staff, said: “I do have serious concerns about the impact of repeal of the law on a force that’s fully engaged in two wars and has been at war for eight-and-a-half years. We just don’t know the impacts on readiness and military effectiveness.”

His sentiments were echoed by General Norton A. Schwartz, the Air Force chief of staff. “This is not the time to perturb the force that is, at the moment, stretched by demands in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere without careful deliberation,” Schwartz told the Committee.

“Today, there were no surprises in the testimony provided by General Casey and General Schwartz,” said Jarrod Chlapowski, an advocate on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell for the Human Rights Campaign. the largest LGBT rights organisation in the US.

On Monday, Senator Joseph Lieberman announced that he will introduce a bill in the US Senate to repeal the discriminatory law.

Earlier this month, Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defence Secretary Robert Gates told the House Armed Services Committee that they would back the President’s efforts to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

President Obama committed himself to working to repeal the law within a year during his State of the Union address in January.