the long term security and democratic systems in the world. this is the right thing to be doing, in my opinion. after that briefing with admiral mullen, among others, walden said, i felt their attitude was a bit on the arrogant side. they had the time to consult with the arab league and nato. why in the devil didn t they have time to consult with us? the briefing i was in that was attended by 60 senators, perhaps more, the secretary of state, secretary of defense, admiral mullen and head of the intelligence sector, they were all very respectful, they all laid out what was happening, they answered many questions. i would also say that the president consulted with the leader of congress. i had a briefing with the armed services committee, and i just happened to disagree with congressman walden. i think there s been respect directed to the congress. we had to act quickly, and the congress now has the chance to
reason for sustaining the don t ask don t tell policy. i mean, i thought admiral mullen and chairman of joint chiefs of staff said something that summed it all up. today, based on the report and survey that was issued by the pentagon a couple of days ago, admiral mullen said it s my professional opinion that we can make this change, which is right, and do it in a way that will not compromise our military effectiveness. you ve actually called this policy un-american. i think it is un-american. the basic american value, to me, enshrined in the declaration of independence is that we re all created equal. that was god s work. and as such we re all endowed with the same rights. at the beginning, those rights were obviously not really given to all americans, and in some ways american history is a journey to realize the basic promise of equal opportunity. and now we ve extended it obviously to women and african-americans. in our time i think the front
fact from fiction of those concerns and highlighting how it s creating new concerns when the old ones are addressed. tonight we want to show you how the top leadership today addressed critics point by point in their own words. joint chiefs chairman mullen and defense secretary gates along with authors of the pentagon study on gays in the military going before the senate armed services committee. mullen and gates arguing the time for ending don t ask don t tell is now. senator john mccain is obviously the ranking republican on the committee and you ll recall he once said if the military leadership came to him with such a recommendation he would consider it. then when they did he said he was waiting for the results of the study. then when the study leaked out he questioned the validity of the study and would be more inclined to take the opinions of the chief because the chairman doesn t command troops. today admiral mullen spoke directly to that criticism and to the senator in particular
they re mature enough to make a judgment on who they want to serve with and the impact on their battle effectiveness. a second concern of mccain and others is that in compiling the report, the authors only asked service members about what they thought the effects of ending don t ask don t tell would be, not whether they thought it should be ended. i think in effect doing a referendum of the service of the members of the armed forces on a policy matter is a very dangerous path. do you think the answers to the questions would have been different had we asked them outright? well, i think that as mr. johnson and general hamm have testified earlier, through the many questions in the survey, you get a pretty clear view of the views of the force in terms of this change. in addition, in his opening statement, admiral mullen pointed to polling done before
do you think the answers to the questions would have been different had we asked them outright? well, i think that as mr. johnson and general hamm have testified earlier, through the many questions in the survey, you get a pretty clear view of the views of the force in terms of this change. in addition, in his opening statement, admiral mullen pointed to polling done before integrating the military that showed 80% of troops then opposed it and many saying they would leave the service if it happened. today senator saxby chambliss of georgia raised that same concern. by his reading of the pentagon report, more than a quarter million troops might up and leave if don t ask don t tell is lifted. what if it does happen? what if those 265,000 resign from the military over the next short period of time?