Military lowers standards, but still prohibits gays from serving

Interesting: a recent article in Slate.com discusses a new Army
directive...
"Now comes a new Army directive that attempts to alleviate the
personnel crunch by retaining soldiers who are earmarked for
early discharge during their first term of enlistment because of
alcohol or drug abuse, unsatisfactory performance, or being
overweight, among other reasons. By retaining these soldiers,
the Army lowers the quality of its force and places a heavy burden
on commanders who have to take the poor performers into harm's
way. This is a quick fix that may create more problems than it
solves."
"Make no mistake, however—these are not soldiers who field
commanders want to retain. One lieutenant colonel currently
commanding a civil-affairs battalion said these troops were the
ones "who eat up my time and cause my hair to gray prematurely."
A former infantry officer said he could "not recall a single soldier
chaptered for the reasons identified ... that I would have wanted
to deploy with.""
The article goes on to list many better ways to maintain our fighting
forces, but it leaves out the option that occurred to me immediately.
Get rid of "Don't ask, don't tell"! Allow gays to serve openly in the
military. But, of course, that option is off the table. Better to have
alcoholics and drug abusers serving in the Army than homosexuals.
Wouldn't want to lower morale now, would we??