by Jeremiah Pride

In anticipation of President Obama’s address to the Nation I had great hopes, but low expectations as to the substance that would be offered within his latest political address. As I sat patiently through President Obama’s 18 minute speech, he proudly announced that the “American combat mission in Iraq was over.” He went on further to say that the Iraqis would basically be left to their own devices; offering them encouragement to drive on without our assistance. In my opinion, the speeches failing was the lack of Obama qualifying and quantifying real troop accomplishments while at war in Iraq; I was left wondering was the mission actually accomplished? And if so, what in fact was the reason for staying after WMDs were not found?

From my understanding many of the Iraqi translators and informants that weren’t killed during the war are now pleading with the State Department for amnesty and political asylum.  Amnesty and safe haven was something promised to most of them around the beginning of the war during the Bush Administration.  Some of them even joined our American military to gain citizenship. Unfortunately many of these Iraqis and foreign nationals, some from neighboring Islamic countries, still live in fear of death and torture for aiding US soldiers in accomplishing “the mission”; yet this wasn’t addressed by the President at all.

I noticed that President Obama’s speechwriters did, however, manage to insert a “velvet slap” to the Bush administration for getting us into this whole mess by emphasizing Bush’s dedication to the soldiers and how Bush was sitting president at the beginning of the war. To the trained political ear the opposite political message was projected, which was, Bush got us into this mess, not me! This back and forth covert mudslinging could have best been used to address the translator issues and listing solid accomplishments made in the last eight years we’ve been at war. He only spoke only in generalities, i.e. “Millions of pieces of equipment being moved”, or redeployed and “…thousands of troops were finally coming home.”  This was all great news, but the message had neither substance nor originality. These details had been covered by the mainstream media for at least a week before his Presidential address. Although he did state that a few solders remain in Iraq for training, President Obama never once mentioned that there numbers are still in the thousands.

The mundane references to the Iraqi pull-out did not serve as a motivator or a source of comfort for most Americans and American military troops. Military service men and women are still wondering what we actually accomplished in Iraq and if Bush’s war was worth thousands of American lives and billions of dollars. Nearing November, the focus and the timing of the speech seemed merely to gain political capital. He mentioned that he kept his campaign promise of calling the Iraq war to an end, but what about his other pre-electoral promises made by the President to the military and to the American people at-large?

I was not surprised that he didn’t address the humongous “elephant” in the room which is the unjust perpetuation of discriminatory firings under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) article117 which is better known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT). This is a policy prevents LGBT military personnel from serving openly in the military.  We have no domestic rights and/or benefits and are forced to live a lie—less we get fired.  This address would have been a perfect opportunity for President Obama to, at least, recognized and reiterate his devotion to discontinuing this bigoted practice. He could have also used his executive authority to impose a presidential stay on DADT policy until the Pentagon finishes their useless biased surveys. This move would have immediately stopped the firings, which have caused so many lives to be adversely affected.

President Obama could have gained instant political capital from the thousands of LGBT military servicemen and women, and their straight and LGBT supporters by openly recognizing that thousands of LGBT service members have deployed and many LGBT soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen have been killed and wounded during the Iraq war. He could have also mentioned that over 22 Nations, to include NATO countries, UK, Australia, and Canada have openly LGBT military service personnel who are effective, equal and have not adversely affected “unit moral” or “unit cohesiveness.” This “military” issue wasn’t deemed relevant enough to be addressed during the President’s ”military” address to the nation.

Of course you could have argued that this was a war address and not an appropriate venue for politico-domestic address: that’s if, President Obama didn’t speak about jobs, the BP disaster and the general state of the economy. Of course these issues are important but as an LGBT military officer, I was more than a little bit disappointed in the speeches lack of emphasis on military social issues in which we are currently plagued. It would have taken the President just two of his 18 minutes to change everything for us. He should know by now that the DADT is more divisive now than ever. Sensing that impending death of DADT, many religious factions who are embedded amongst our military ranks are using the Pentagon’s stalling as a prime opportunity to maximize the unjust firings and harassment of honorable LGBT war heroes. All we can do now is to hide and hope for Obama’s promise of “Change We Can Believe In.”

Jeremiah Pride is the pen name of an active duty, gay military major in the US Army.