what if it does happen? what if those 265,000 resign from the military over the next short period of time? what are you going to do? if i believe that a quarter of a million people would leave the military immediately, if given the opportunity, i would certainly have second thoughts about this. but i don t believe that. secretary gates on the idea of mass depart tours. there s also the question of why now? why war time. should we be tinkering with don t ask don t tell? republican senator collins handled that one. admiral mullen, the second objection that we hear over and over and over is that we cannot implement this kind of change in the midst of a war. and i thought you made an excellent point that the opposite may be true, that war time facilitates change in some ways. and in fact, wasn t president truman s 1948 order to integrate
congress. has he been moving the goalpost here? well, i john is my good friend, but i disagree with him on this. and the tapes you played suggest changing standards here. i mean, in my opinion so you do think that he s changed his standings, he s moved the goalpost. i think the questions he raised has been answered in the survey. two-thirds of the american military, a little more than that, say they don t think repealing don t ask don t tell will have any effect on military readiness, and 92% of the american military who feel that they have served with somebody gay or lesbian in their own unit say that it has simply not been a problem. so as his friend, what do you say you re not going to give up private conversations, but when you re one-on-one with him, what kind of discussions do you have? how do you try to convince him? well, you know, the one-on-one conversations, i mean, i try to convince him in the same way that i ve made the case here.
referendum of the service of the members of the armed forces on a policy matter is a very dangerous path. do you think the answers to the questions would have been different had we asked them outright? well, i think that as mr. johnson and general hamm have testified earlier, through the many questions in the survey, you get a pretty clear view of the views of the force in terms of this change. in addition, in his opening statement, admiral mullen pointed to polling done before integrating the military that showed 80% of troops then opposed it and many saying they would leave the service if it happened. today senator saxby chambliss of georgia raised that same concern. by his reading of the pentagon report, more than a quarter million troops might up and leave if don t ask don t tell is lifted.
not what you do in your private life. admiral mullen talks about integrity. the military still has great values. but this policy, don t ask don t tell, is a stain on the honor and values of the american military and we ought to remove it as quickly as possible. just final question, part of the argument used by those who oppose repealing this is that, while sharing bathroom facilities or showering facilities, although frankly most showers in the military are individual, would be make people uncomfortable and would also be bad because of possibly predatory, i guess, gay and lesbian service members. do you think that s a valid argument, and would you have a problem sharing a locker room facility with somebody who was gay? of course not. i mean, look. if any gay soldier begins to sexually harass somebody, a man, they re going to be subject to discipline just like a straight
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