Colin Powell: "Things Have Changed" on Gays in the Military

As the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1993, you'll recall that Gen. Colin Powell opposed fully integrating gays in the military. In February,  Powell said that he supported repeal and this morning on ABC's This Week the general was asked why he's changed his position.

Said the retired general: "That was 17 years ago." Powell added, "I am personally of the view now that attitudes have changed and I think it is perfectly acceptable to get rid of the law and the policy but I think before we actually do it we have to hear clearly from the officers and the men and women who are charge of executing the policy. At the end of the day, the law will change and 'don't ask, don't tell' will go away."

The video is HERE beginning at 11:55.

Meanwhile: The current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, was a guest on CNN's State of the Union and said he believes Congress should have waited before voting to begin the process of repeal last week. And on Thursday, Mullen said he was "comfortable" with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal legislation because "it includes 'very clear language' that gives senior leaders the final say in whether it’s implemented."

"Whether" versus "when"?

Comments

[Jim]

“The general was asked why he’s changed his position:

“‘That was 17 years ago.’ Powell added, ‘I am personally of the view now that attitudes have changed, and I think it is perfectly acceptable to get rid of the law and the policy...’”

So, in other words, it was “perfectly acceptable” to discriminate against gay people 17 years ago, because doing so was popular. It was so acceptable, in fact, that Colin Powell fought for it. But now attitudes have changed.

So, I guess it is popular attitudes that determine what is moral and what is not for Mr. Powell.

Another good example would be slavery. Today, slavery is widely considered immoral. But 150 years ago, because it was popular with Southern plantation owners, Mr. Powell would not have had any problem with it.

[Shelley]

I rarely like George Will, but I did like his comment about left-handedness.

[Louis]

Personally, I am glad that with the passage of time, some people's beliefs change for the better. At one time, most condoned segregating military service members based on race. With the passage of time, many of those people changed their opinions. The same could be said for women's rights...and now, hopefully this is true for sgl people's rights as well.

[DLM]

I believe Mullen said "when", not "whether", regarding implementation. I was listening for this pretty carefully. It would be worth viewing the video closely again to be certain.

[Rod Mc]

@DLM: Mullen said "whether". The link above is a verbatim quote via defense.gov. It's very unlikely the Department of Defense website would misquote the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. -RM