Time to Speak Up

Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell as policy
Is playing dumb and dangerously.
In NATO, only Turkey buys
Our idiotic compromise,
Which 14,000 troops has trapped
When, of their preference, someone yapped.

And yet alliance forces can,
Together in Afghanistan,
Ourselves included, side by side
Chase down Al Qaeda stride by stride,
Seek out, destroy the Taliban,
Not worried who’s the macho man.

Some troops are Prussian, for God’s sake,
If anyone would bellyache,
Von Clausewitz’s heirs you’d think
Would be the first to raise a stink.
But evidently even they
Can calmly share a sleeping bay.

For languages (why? I don’t know),
Gays show a flair, and so Pashto
And Dari spoken where they fight
Is good to know when things get tight.
Perhaps a helpful tribesman could
Save GIs’ lives if understood.

But not if someone’s been let go
For—unasked—having told, although
He (she) did nothing out of place.
That’s why the Congress should erase
This law the High Court wouldn’t judge.
The Hill, Obama needs to nudge.