With last week’s Congressional hearings regarding “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” one would finally anticipate that the loathed and unsuccessful program, which prevents gays and lesbians from serving openly in the United States Armed Forces, would be laid low and cast onto the garbage heap of history as a Cadillac example of failed policy.

Instead, the Senate Armed Services Committee hearings saw those senators who are staunchly for the policy not only continue to defend it, but also chastise Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mike Mullen for seeking the policy’s termination.

“No matter how I look at this issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens. For me personally, it comes down to integrity, theirs as individuals and ours as an institution,” said Mullen.

Senators, including John McCain, Jeff Sessions and other Republicans, rebuked the admiral’s recommendation, accusing him of merely towing the policy goals of President Barack Obama.

Many Republican senators continued objections to allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly focus on the notion that doing so would harm “unit cohesion” and could lead to harassment of the gay and lesbian soldiers.

The fact is that in the rest of the world, subsequent to the end on bans of openly gay and lesbian soldiers serving, the militaries of those various nations have not been inundated with the deluge of problems forecasted by “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tells” enthusiasts and (likely homophobic) cheerleaders.

Thirty-one nations allow gays and lesbians to serve openly; of those, a perfect example is Israel. Since 1993 the Israeli Defense Force, has lifted the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly. The Israeli public is largely in support of the policy change.

Regarding whether the fears about integrating gays and lesbians into the military came to fruition, one need only consult the many reports complied after the fact.

“Israel’s decision to lift the ban had no impact on performance,” wrote political science professors Aaron Belkin and Melissa Levitt in “Homosexuality and the IDF: Did Lifting the Gay Ban Undermine Military Performance.”

Belkin and Melissa also note that the IDF, by nature of the near constant state of military action and preparedness necessitated in Israel, is widely considered to be amongst the strongest militaries in the world. If anything, the lifting of the ban has helped the IDF in giving it access to more able-bodied young people.

The United States needs to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Doomsdays scenarios will not occur; the facts don’t back them up. Echoing Mullen, it is simply the right and probably also pragmatic thing to do.

As Barry Goldwater said, “You don’t have to be straight to shoot straight.” I only hope that we finally see an end to the policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” very soon, it has been a long time coming.

Max may be reached at maximilian.feldhake@asu.edu