admiral mullen made that certification in consultation with all of his colleagues. all the other chiefs. and they went up to testify on capitol hill and the chief said they had surveyed the troops, they had done the education, the training, and the force was ready for this change. and stacy, your sense is that that was a fair review? that they really did check it out with the troops in the officer corps? i think it was the most thorough review they could do, and i think that the training they did was very effective. and i think that young service members have changed their minds. and they ve helped bring other pem along with them. excuse me, the argument has been the young kid, the young 17-year-old recruit from a rural background that doesn t get exposed to a lot of conversations, like we re having here, fair enough. that s the background. that he would be intimidated, that he would be stopped from being a good soldier. the reality is, chris, these kids came from the civilian
he s already on his way back to kabul. now back to hardball. welcome back to hardball. welcome back to hardball. a new era in the american military began at 12:01 this morning when the pentagon stopped enforcing the don t ask, don t tell law, which said gays and lesbians could serve only if they did not reveal their sexual orientation. well, president obama issued a statement this morning that read in part, quote, as of today, patriotic americans in uniform will no longer have to lie about who they are in order to serve the country they love. as of today, our armed forces will no longer lose the extraordinary skills and combat experience of so many gay and lesbian service members. and today, as commander in chief, i want those who were discharged under this law to know that your country deeply values your service. stacy vasquez was an army
go out and do their job and serve our country. and to our point, it builds even greater trust and camaraderie that you can be honest every day about who you are. you no longer have to lie about a very important part of your life. yeah. well, let me ask you about the military s reaction from viewers saying well, let me go to aubrey, because you ve been having to lobby this thing and fight it. with stacy, and with many, many well, let me tell you, because i ve known you forever. let me ask you about the opposition in the marine corps. that was at the high, the top, the marine chief of staff. you re talking about then general pace. yeah. and fair enough, this is what his position was, that s his honest position, or opposition to this does that remain at the high level? is there some people who say at the top, we shouldn t be doing this? no, absolutely not. what we saw when the certification, and by that i mean, the chairman of the joint chiefs, the secretary of the defen
change. admiral mullen made that certification in consultation with all of his colleagues. all the other chiefs. and they went up to testify on capitol hill and the chief said they had surveyed the troops, they had done the education, the training, and the force was ready for this change. and stacy, your sense is that that was a fair review? that they really did check it out with the troops in the officer corps? i think it was the most thorough review they could do, and i think that the training they did was very effective. and i think that young service members have changed their minds. and they ve helped bring other people along excuse me, the argument has been the young kid, the young 17-year-old recruit from a rural background that doesn t get exposed to a lot of conversations, like we re having here, fair enough. that he would be intimidated, that he would be stopped from being a good soldier. the reality is, chris, these kids came from the civilian sect sector. and all
safe and secure and be able to go out and do their job and serve our country. and to your point, it builds even greater trust and camaraderie that you can be honest every day about who you are. you no longer have to lie about a very important part of your life. yeah. well, let me ask you about the military s reaction from viewers saying well, let me go to aubrey, because you ve been having to lobby this thing and fight it. with stacy, and with many, many service members. i ve known you forever. well, let me ask you about the opposition for the marine corps. that was at the high, the top, the marine chief of staff. you re talking about then general pace. yeah. and fair enough, this is what his position was, that s his honest position, or opposition to this. does that remain at the high level? is there some people who say at the top, we shouldn t be doing this? no, absolutely not. what we saw when the certification, and by that i mean, the chairman of the joint chiefs, th