Generals in the Government: Problems with Overriding the Law.

Kamila Shurmanova

Jim Mattis, appointed by President Trump as Defense Secretary, is a newly (3 years out of active service) retired officer. He recently proposed that the use of military force against ISIS should be legalized. His main claim is that the terrorist has already erased the limits of time and geographic issues by their acts. Mattis argues that the idea of military response to the ISIS has been in his head for several years now and that he is very surprised that it has not been even brought to debate yet.   Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joe Dunford has supported Mattis’ ideas and they both argued that more budget should be given to the Defense, so they can ‘reclaim military readiness’. Defense Secretary also pointed out that law has made US military more damage than on field battles with enemy.

"I can find nothing in the Budget Control Act that helps our national security," Mattis testified, adding that the law places Congress in a "spectator role."


Mattis’ proposed actions are very militaristic and focused on the aggression towards an enemy. He proposes to stop endless discussion and start acting, these judgments might come from the fact that Mattis has not fully re-entered civilian life and is still thinking as a military officer rather than a civilian authority. In the US there is a law that a military officer might start political service only 7 years after his retirement, so he can have time to get out of the military judgment. Pr. Trump has closed his eyes on this law when he appointed Jim Mattis to the position of Defense Secretary, despite all the doubts that other authorities had. Judging from the propositions that Mattis gives it is evident that he is still biased and his  ideas are limited by his military habits.

____________

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/jim-mattis-aumf-vote-isis-236370

Changing attitudes towards LGBT community in the US military

Author: Bektas Baktybayev

Links 
https://freedomhouse.org/blog/why-democracy-matters-gay-rights 
http://upogau.org/ru/ourview/ourview_7499.html 
https://www.gazeta.ru/army/2016/07/01/8351993.shtml 
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/transgender 
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/homosexuality 
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/defense/311392-lgbt-inclusion-holds-all-us-military-to-same-high-standard 
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pentagon-transgender-ban-20160630-snap-story.html 

Reference 
Feaver, Peter, and Richard H. Kohn, ed. 2001. Soldiers and Civilians: The Civil-Military 
Gap and American National Security. MIT Press. 

There is a debate among scholars and different segments of the population regarding the role of LGBT in different states. USA is one of the states which promote democratic values in the world. Provision of equal rights to the representatives of LGBT community in USA is considered as one of the factors which lead to democracy. The extension of rights of homosexuals in USA in recent years is associated with the Obama’s rule in America. For instance, Pentagon lifted the ban on openly transgender service in military during Obama’s rule on June 30 of 2016.   

Pentagon’s decision regarding the LGBT in military can be characterized as result of process of a gradual change of attitudes in American society towards LGBT minorities. For example, we can have some idea about attitudes towards gays in military in 1990s by reading the Davis’s article. Davis’s piece of article analyzes the results of surveys conducted among two samples, which are “mass” and “brass”. The former one is the samples of high-ranking Army and Navy officers consisting of 1001 people and the latter one is the samples of cadets at the three service academies, and samples of civilian elites consisting of 1028 people. 
Davis found that only 16.3 per cent of male Brass favored gays and lesbians “serving openly” while 70 per cent of civilian supported gays and lesbians. It means male officers are less supportive of women in combat than civilians and are opposed to gays serving openly in the military. 

There has been a positive change in societal attitudes toward homosexuality over the past few years, which can be seen from the set of changes in the American legislation. The admission of transgenders to military service is logical continuation of free military service of open gays and lesbians which was introduced in 2011. It was the first major change which lifted the policy named "don't ask, don't tell," a 17-year-old policy, between 1994-2011 that barred gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military. 

“Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was previously introduced due to the belief that allowing LGBT military members to serve while acknowledging their identities would create unmanageable burdens — both social and medical — for comrades, commanders and senior leadership. However, according to the Aaron Belkin, contributor of “The Hill” site, transgender troops as a group present no greater healthcare needs or risk of lost duty time than anyone else. 

The recent Pentagon’s decision to allow transgenders to serve openly in military provides equal rights to the people, which placed gender identity on par with race, religion, color, sex and sexual orientation. According to Pentagon’s decision the word “transgender” is wider concept compared to “homosexuals.” The word “transgender” can be defined as follows based on Oxford’s definition: transgender as adjective means: Denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex. The word “homosexuality” means: The quality or characteristic of being sexually attracted solely to people of one's own sex. The new legislation regarding transgenders is also applied to people who have gone through the surgical procedures as well as Hormone replacement therapy. 

To conclude, there can be noted positive attitude towards homosexuals and transgenders in US society, which resulted on the lifting the ban on openly transgender service in military. The Palm Center estimated that 12600 transgenders serve in military. At present, LGBT community in USA has equal rights compared with other segments of population which is consistent with democratic values of America. Such positive changes towards LGBT was possible thanks to Obama’s rule.