SANTA BARBARA, CA, — General John Shalikashvili has published a Washington Post op-ed outlining a compromise solution on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Responding to Defense Secretary Gates’s request that Congress avoid addressing the issue this year, General Shalikashvili says that if legislators repeal the ban but refrain from mandating non-descrimination, this would allow the Secretary freedom and authority to chart his own course.

He observes that “repeal-only” would increase Secretary Gates’s maneuvering room to implement recommendations of a forthcoming Pentagon working group study, if the Secretary decides to do so.  If Congress fails to take action, Secretary Gates likely would be prevented from implementing those recommendations.

Observers believe such a compromise may be able to make its way through the Senate Armed Services Committee.