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Showing posts with the label United States Secretary of Defense

Trump issues order supporting ban on many transgender troops, defers to Pentagon on new restrictions

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President Trump issued an order late Friday that supports a ban on many transgender troops, deferring to a new Pentagon plan that essentially cancels a policy adopted by the Obama administration . The decision revokes a full ban that Trump issued last summer but disqualifies U.S. troops who have had gender reassignment surgery , as recommended by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. “By its very nature, military service requires sacrifice,” Mattis wrote in a memo to the president that was released Friday. “The men and women who serve voluntarily accept limitations on their personal liberties — freedom of speech, political activity, freedom of movement — in order to provide the military lethality and readiness necessary to ensure American citizens enjoy their personal freedoms to the fullest extent.” Current transgender service members who have not undergone reassignment surgery should be allowed to stay, as long as they have been medically stable for 36 consecutive months in their ...

Broussard, Bigotry, and the NBA

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The criticism of Broussard is totally unwarranted After watching Broussard’s remarks with my wife, I turned to her and said, “That was strong.” All he did was to confess what the Bible teaches about sexual morality and about what God requires of every Christian—obedience ( 1 John 2:4). It was a clearer word than what you would hear in many pulpits. It was biblical. It was faithful. It was courageous. After the news broke earlier today that Jason Collins has come out as the first openly gay player in the NBA, I didn’t really plan to comment. But that all changed after watching Chris Broussard ’s commentary for ESPN . After Collins’ announcement appeared, all the sports shows were abuzz with the news. ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” hosted a discussion between two sportswriters: the openly gay LZ Granderson and the Christian Chris Broussard. The long and short of it is this. Jason Collins still claims to be a Christian even though he is openly gay. ESPN asked Broussard to comment ...

White House to announce end of homosexual military ban based on skewed survey

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Image via Wikipedia The Obama administration is on the brink of officially repealing the military’s ban on open homosexuality. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is expected to announce Friday afternoon that he has certified the change will not affect military readiness, according to Pentagon officials.  Panetta and Navy Admiral Mike Mullen will be meeting with President Obama at 2:45 p.m. Friday in the Oval Office , after which the announcement could take place. Once certified by Panetta and President Obama, the ban would be expected to end in another 60 days. Congress in December passed a preemptive repeal of DADT , which depended upon assurance from the Pentagon that the repeal would not disrupt military readiness. While administration officials claimed that a report released in November of last year proved that the repeal would be harmless, that claim has been the subject of fierce opposition from conservative groups, who note that the results from the study show an overwhel...

LEAKED: U.S. defense officials deliberately skewed survey results to sway ‘Don’t Ask’ repeal

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Image via Wikipedia An explosive document from the U.S. military’s top investigative office has revealed evidence that a Pentagon survey pivotal to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal was engineered months prior to its release, and deliberately skewed in later media leaks, to sway Congress towards repeal despite opposition from combat troops. An  unredacted version  of the April 2011 report by the Defense department’s Inspector General was leaked to the conservative Center for Military Readiness , and a  slightly redacted  version was confirmed as authentic by a Defense spokesperson to LifeSiteNews.com. The authors found that Jeh Johnson , a co-chair of the commission handling the survey, had breached the document’s non-disclosure agreements by discussing an early draft of the document with “a former news anchor” and “close personal friend” on or around July 4, 2010. The purpose of the meeting, almost six months before the survey’s official end, was to obtain “su...