Posted on: Friday, November 22, 2002

War on terror: Army has priorities 'straight'

It's comforting, is it not, to learn that the Army, desperately short of Arabic-speaking soldiers, is spreading them even thinner by eliminating those who are gay or lesbian.

In the year following 9/11, nine Army linguists — six trained in Arabic, two in Korean and one in Chinese — were dismissed from the military because they are gay.

Never mind the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy with gay soldiers. What seems to be of paramount importance to the Army is that no soldier, if he's gay, should have the opportunity to save the nation from another terrorist attack.

How reassuring.