With today being Memorial Day, it's a chance to remember soldiers and military professionals around the country. Given that we're currently fighting two wars, the strength and well-being of the U.S. military has perhaps never been more important.

Which is why it's all the more troubling that under President Obama, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network confirms that 214 gay and lesbian soldiers have been discharged under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." That's 214 soldiers - qualified military professionals helping to make our military stronger and better - fired simply because they are gay.

How many more soldiers will need to be fired before Obama and the 111th Congress take action on ending the military's discriminatory policy?

Unfortunately, Adm. Mike Mullen, appearing on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, gave no indication that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" would be ending soon, even if Congress cleared a path for legislation to overturn it.  Here's Mullen, responding to a question from George Stephanopoulos over what the challenges are toward overturning DADT:

Well, it's my job as the senior military adviser to provide best advice, best military advice for the president. And what I owe him is an objective assessment of what these changes would be. What they might impact on. And there could be speculation about what that might be, but my goal would be to achieve an objective assessment of the impact, if any, of this kind of change.

In addition, you know, I would need some time for a force that's under a great deal of stress -- we're in our sixth year of fighting two wars -- to look at if this change occurs, to look at implementing it in a very deliberate, measured way.

And what I also owe the president, and I owe the men and women in uniform, is an implementation plan to achieve this based on a timeline that would be set, obviously, after the law is changed.

What I find most troubling about Mullen's statement is that he recognizes that the military is under a great deal of stress, but doesn't get that ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" would be a policy step in the direction of alleviating that stress.  Instead, Mullen's statement makes it sound like a fully-integrated military would be a burden.  As a national military leader for a progressive president, it's disappointing that Mullen would tow that line.

On this Memorial Day, let's definitely remember those soldiers that have contributed to making America safe and stronger.  But let's also use this holiday as another chance to call attention to the inequality still systemic in the U.S. military - now a full 214 soldiers fired, simply because they are gay or lesbian.  That doesn't make America safer.  That makes us far less safe.