Robert Gates actually said...

If I believed that a quarter of a million people would leave the military immediately, if given the opportunity, I would certainly have seco...

I think in effect doing a referendum of the service of the members of the armed forces on a policy matter is a very dangerous path.

The President can't change this law. It's just that simple.

What the President did in his State of the Union Address was say that he would like to see this law repealed.