I think the military is operating under what's called a "stop loss" provision right now, where normal tours of duty are being extended, discharges are being delayed, etc..and the prevailing thought very well might be to look the other way during this period of time when they can't afford to lose good active duty personnel. I bet that if and when the amount of active conflicts we ae involved with goes down and the stop loss provisions of contracts are no longer being utilized, we will likely see a return to the higher discharge rates. I believe this won't be due as much to local commanders wanting to get rid of people as much as them no longer having a valid reason to ignore pressure from outside groups.

The good thing about this current situation though is that it can be used to support possible future attempts at completely doing away with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".