Marine Commandant General James Amos Arrives At Conclusion That Repealing DADT Will Cost Life And Limb

General James Amos, the commandant of the Marine Corps, continued to adopt a stance of aggressive opposition to the repeal of the policy that prohibits openly gay service personal, the Washington Post reporting that Tuesday Amos told reporters assembled at the Pentagon that “When your life hangs on the line you don’t want anything distracting ... Mistakes and inattention or distractions cost Marines’ lives.” Although deliberately ambiguous about the source of the distraction (when asked, he confusingly answered “I can’t explain what the expectations are. I can’t explain what they think might happen.”), Amos cited the recently revealed Department of Defense survey in which a majority of Marine veterans speculated that lifting the law known as “don’t ask, don’t tell, would disrupt “unit cohesion” and military readiness. Amos, as though to underline his fear of distraction, added ““I don’t want to lose any Marines to the distraction. I don’t want to have any Marines that I’m visiting at Bethesda [National Naval Medical Center, in Maryland] with no legs be the result of any type of distraction.” He concluded “That's all I need. I don't need a staff study. I don't need to hire three PhDs to tell me what to interpret it. I've got Marines that came back to me as their commandant and said, we have concerns. So if they have concerns, I do, too. It's as simple as that."