on this issue, but don t think for one moment that i haven t carefully considered the impact of the advice i give on those who will have to live with the decisions that that advice informs. i would not recommend repeal of this law if i did not believe in my soul that it was the right thing to do for our military, for our nation, and for our collective honor. that s one objection answered. senator mccain had earlier downplayed secretary gates qualifications because the senator said gates had never served in the armed forces. in fact he had and senator mccain had to retract those remarks. the service heads testify tomorrow and it will be interesting to see if the marine corps commandant will change his opinion now that he s had time to study the pentagon report. the study does show higher resistance among the marines and front line forces about serving alongside openly gay troops.
thought it should be ended. i think in effect doing a 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