Bush and Cheney have said we are in an epic struggle against the terrorists for the future of Western Civilization. But I guess it's not quite important enough to allow gay Arabic translators in the military.

This is perhaps the pinnacle of absurdity. We desperately need more skilled Arabic translators in the military, yet we fire some of the ones we have because they are gay. Either the struggle is not as important as Bush says, or he really, really, really doesn't like gay people.

Here's a question for Bush and the "no gays in military crowd": Which will undermine the morale of a unit in Iraq more: (a) having a gay man in the unit; or (b) three guys in the unit getting blown up because they weren't able to get a timely and accurate translation of some hot intelligence?

Here's a piece, Don't Ask, Don't Translate from today's NYT written by Stephen Benjamin, an Arabic translator who was dismissed from the military for being gay. Insanity.

If Cheney had more courage, he would speak out on this forcefully. It's not like he's running for anything.