Page 33 - Unit Cohesion News Today

Medical treatments. here to discuss, cnn analyst and law professor steve. steve, first on the law here, this raises a couple legal questions, potentially. is it legal to prevent people from joining and more authority are they treating transgender troops who were told they could come out publicly to treat them this way now? >> thats exactly right. theres already a law pending in washington by five transgender service members arguing the president lacks the ability to expel them simply because the...

Could change in a moments notice. to discuss now former president of the transgender american veterans association martha helms. and retired general mark hertling. thank you both for being here. i want you to listen to remarks made by one of the presidents aides on this issue. lets listen. >> the military is not a microcosm of civilian society. theyre not there to reflect america. theyre there to kill people and blow stuff up. we want people who are transgender to live happy lives but we want un...

Policy is unchanged until we get a drek active, like a lawful drek active from the president of the united states. and then more importantly, the reaction from capitol hill is something extraordinary. when we went through dont ask dont tell and the ending of dont ask, dont tell, we heard some of the most outrageous things said about guy troops and lesbian and guy male troops in the military and what they could do with unit cohesion and effectiveness. and that all went by the wayside. what we see...

They are there to kill people and blow stuff up. they are not there to be socially engineered. we want people who are transgendered to live happy lives. but we want unit cohesion and we want combat effectiveness, and that is why the president is doing this out of the warmth of his consideration for this population. >> kurt, apparently it caught military leaders off guard, including his joint chiefs of staff. is this simply a play to his base? >> yes. this has nothing to do with military cohesion...

Transgender to live happy lives, but we want unit cohesion and we want combat effectiveness. and that is why the president is doing this out of the warmth of his consideration for this population. >> kristin, whats your reaction to that? >> thats ridiculous. he might be talking something 13th century, bunch of coneheads running down. i was flying uavs, i was doing weirdo intel stuff. when i was in the s.e.a.l.s when i was at, then you had the other guys, assaulters and door kickers, the big dude...

Reaction from capitol hill is something extraordinary. when we went through, dont ask dont tell and the ending of dont ask dont tell, we heard some of the most outrageous things said about gay troops and lesbian and gay male troops in the military on what they would do to unit cohesion and effectiveness, and that went by the wayside when dont ask dont tell was done away with in 2010. what we see with senator oren hatch, theyre saying theyre born that way, they should be able to serve and thats t...

Military environment where theyre under the utmost pressure to kill or be killed. and that is why the president is doing this out of the warmth of his consideration for this population. >> general mark hertling, you have talked, im sure, in the last couple of days with your colleagues in the military. what are you hearing in that regard? >> as you know, john kelly and i both wrote an op-ed on this piece, claiming how the ban was identified by the president. why it was done. and why it was not a ...

Uniforms. its just about facts and budget and how cohesion existed in the military that a lot of people got wrong this week. and its really unfortunate, because transgenders are serving with a great deal of pride in the their country. i meant john kirby, not john kelly earlier. i want to correct myself. >> john kirby said we would lose a lot of talent if what happens the president is trying to mandate. thank you, lieutenant general mark hertling, monica helms, so glad to have you here. visibili ...

He said the policy will not be altered until the secretary of defense jim mattis receives direction from the president. mattis issues guidance. according to reports, the joint chiefs and other senior military officials, they were left blind sighted by trumps announcement. the chief of naval personnel, robert burke issued a memo saying secretary mathiss office is working to quickly discern the presidents intent. a point the white house continued to push later that day. >> the decision is based on...

Military decision. its not meant to be anything more than that. as i said before and ill try to make it clear, this was a military decision. that was about military readiness, about unit cohesion, about resources within the military and nothing more. >> so far the nave has issued the most specific guidance. "at this time no transgender sailors will be discharged a and -- she claims in a to blow the joint chief of staff when he announced this, no to be