Openly gay people should be allowed to serve in the US military, the country's top commander has said.

美国最高军事指挥官称，公开的同性恋人员应该被允许进入美国军队服役。

Adm Mike Mullen told a Senate hearing into a ban on openly gay personnel职员，全体人员 that allowing them to serve was "the right thing to do".

He said there were practical difficulties in repealing²废除，撤销 the so-called "don't ask, don't tell" policy, but that the military could handle it.

President Barack Obama has pledged to repeal¹ the ban.

Adm Mullen, chairman of the Joint³ Chiefs of Staff, stressed he was "speaking for myself and myself only".

"No matter how I look at this issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens公民同胞，同胞们."

He told the Senate Armed Services Committee the issue "comes down to integrity正直，诚实, theirs as individuals and ours as an institution制度，机构".

His comments echo Mr Obama's State of the Union address last week, in which the president said: "This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are. It's the right thing to do."

Legal compromise

Appearing before the same Senate panel, defence secretary Robert Gates announced a year-long policy review.

His chief legal adviser⁴, Jeh Johnson, and Gen Carter Ham, who heads US army forces in Europe, will lead the review into how to go about lifting the ban on openly gay military personnel.

Mr Gates said: "The question before us is not whether the military prepares to make this change, but how we best prepare for it.

"We received our orders from the commander-in-chief and we are moving out accordingly."

Under the law passed by Congress in 1993, engaging in homosexual conduct - even if the person concerned does not tell anyone - can be enough to qualify a person for dismissal解雇，免职.

It was introduced as a compromise妥协，折衷 between then-President Bill Clinton's desire totally to lift the ban, and concerns from Congress and the military that lifting it would be disruptive破坏的，分裂性的.

Adm Mullen said he believed fellow service members "can and would accommodate适应，调解 such a change" to the policy.

He added that he had learned never to "underestimate低估，看清 their ability to adapt".

Senator John McCain, the top Republican on the committee, said he was "deeply disappointed" about the review, saying it was "clearly biased有偏见的" because it presumed the law should be changed.

"Has this policy been ideal? No, it has not," he said. "But it has been effective."

Recent figures from the Pentagon show that 428 service members were dismissed for being openly gay in 2009, down from 619 dismissed in 2008.

The number is by far the lowest since 1997, when 997 service members were dismissed.

Overall, more than 10,900 troops have been dismissed under the policy.