Reality Gap

From one of Andrew Sullivan's readers, this comment on repeal of DADT:

Allow me to be a dissenter on the criticism people have been leveling at Obama for wanting to move slowly on DADT. The public and younger folks may be perfectly supportive of opening the military to gays serving openly, but that's not the case with the military. No matter how delicately the administration approaches the issue, there will be resentment within the military. And it could turn violent at the lower echelons.

My fear is that moving too quickly and creating resentment by repealing the ban will simply make things dangerous for gays who are currently serving. I want Obama to take the time building consensus and support. I want him to work with the JCS to make that happen. If servicemembers see that the policy isn't being ramrodded down the military's throat, there may not be as open hostility as there currently is or will be.

I want DADT repealed and the ban on gays lifted. Badly. But, I've been with the military for the past 11 years under DADT. Another year is not a long time and worth it if the policy change is implemented smoothly and people are safer as a result. I don't want Clinton's mistakes repeated or compounded.

The difference is that there is now widespread support for repeal of DADT: it's not 1993 any more. That support extends to enlisted personnel: there are clear majorities in favor of repeal, except among the brass -- the same ones who film Christianist videos in the Pentagon. The comment about resentment within the military is questionable: I suspect the resentment this correspondent mentions, and the potential violence, is going to be found among the same groups who are passing out Bibles in Iraq and trying to convert recruits to hard-core evangelical Christianity. Give or take the ones in on moral waivers. Neither of those should be in the military to begin with.

Either someone's been feeding me a line of bull about support for repeal of DADT both within and without the military, or this writer is not living in the same world in the rest of us. The problem is, I don't know the answer to that. Anyone have any hard information?