WASHINGTON — The nation’s top military officer told Congress Tuesday that gay men and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military, the strongest endorsement ever by the nation’s military leadership for overturning the law that excludes them from the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen called repeal of the ban ‘the right thing to do.’ ‘No matter how I look at the 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,’ Mullen told the Senate Armed Services Committee. Mullen’s testimony drew angry responses from most of the committee’s Republicans, in contrast to the deference they’d shown Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates in a morning session on the Pentagon’s budget, where the Republicans declared the men two of the nation’s finest public servants. Sen. John McCain of Arizona spelled out his objections to repealing the law, calling the current policy imperfect but effective, despite having said four years ago that he’d defer to the wishes […]