Aquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome can impair physical performance, and sometimes judgment. Worse, the virus that causes AIDS can be transmitted to others, with stress hastening the onset. If this disease had not been wrongly molded into political and moral issues, few would disagree that fitness to serve is the only criterion. The military is not an office or a university, where the risk of unintentional transmission is virtually nil.
Blood spills during training, spills in combat.
President Clinton is against automatic discharge. He believes that the HIV-positive should not live in fear of losing their jobs. But the military is a clear exception. The stamina needed to hammer a nail, argue a case, teach a course or make a marketing report is less than that needed to defend this nation or uphold the peace in another. This is a fatal illness.