Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) last week led a group of Senators introducing legislation to repeal the 1993 “Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell” law under the title. In a release, Lieberman said that with a volunteer military, “if Americans want to serve, they ought to have the right to be considered for that service regardless of characteristics such as race, gender, or sexual orientation.” Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the original arguments were not “convincing when it took effect in 1993, and they are less so now.” Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) quoted conservative champion Barry Goldwater who once said, “You don’t have to be straight to shoot straight.” Udall called it an “issue of military effectiveness” because with such prolonged and frequent combat deployments being the norm, “we need all the qualified service members we have to fight.”
Members of the House Armed Services Committee say the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile program has been set back three months due to the ongoing government shutdown. The comment is noteworthy because the JATM's status has been kept tightly under wraps.
