“We send these young people into combat. We think they’re mature enough to fight and die. I think they’re mature enough to make a judgment on who they want to serve with and the impact on their battle effectiveness.”

More than 250,000 U.S. troops may leave the military earlier than they had planned if the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy is reversed, Sen. John McCain said Thursday, basing his data on a new Pentagon report

“The numbers are alarming,” he said.

The Pentagon report on the issue, released Nov. 30, found that 12.6 percent of military members who were surveyed said they would leave sooner than they had planned if Congress overturns the policy and homosexuals are allowed to serve openly. An additional 11.1 percent said they would consider leaving sooner.

McCain, R.-Ariz., made his comments during a Dec. 2 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing where Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen testified.

“If 12.6 percent of the military left earlier, that translates into 264,600 men and women who would leave the military earlier than they had planned,” McCain said before asking Gates, “Do you think that’s a good idea to replace 265,000 troops across the force in a time of war, that we should be undertaking that challenge at this time?”

McCain supports Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, while Gates opposes it…

Supporters of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell warn that its reversal would harm unit cohesion, effectiveness, privacy and religious liberty.

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The source for this document was originally published on bpnews.net—however, the original URL is no longer available.]