This is what we get when we have leaders who put their own prejudices above the interests of national security :

Even with concerns growing about military troop strength, 770 people were discharged for homosexuality last year under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, a new study shows.

The figure, however, is significantly lower than the record 1,227 discharges in 2001 ? just before the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Since “don’t ask, don’t tell” was adopted in 1994, nearly 10,000 military personnel have been discharged ? including linguists, nuclear warfare experts and other key specialists.
. . .
Hundreds of those discharged held high-level job specialties that required years of training and expertise, including 90 nuclear power engineers, 150 rocket and missile specialists and 49 nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare specialists.

Eighty-eight linguists were discharged, including at least seven Arab language specialists.

Before you feel like reminding me that “don’t ask, don’t tell” was from Clinton, lemme remind you that 9/11 supposedly “changed everything”. If we’re serious about fighting terrorism, policies like this should be the first to go. At the very least, the whole “unit cohesion” argument doesn’t hold a lot of water (not that it ever did) when we’re talking about guys who sit in cubicles all day translating emails. George Bush could change this with a phone call if he wanted to, but he’d rather placate his conservative base.