by Frank Gaffney
These days, Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama is an endangered species in official Washington. That’s not because political hacks – in uniform and out – are taking every imaginable cheap shot at him, including that he is “endangering our national security” by holding up the promotions of some 300 officers.
The latest to do so is the American Legion, an organization that once faithfully championed our armed forces’ warriors, both serving and veteran. As its attack on Coach Tuberville demonstrates, however, the Legion has been reduced to just another special interest group pandering to those in power in exchange for favorable treatment.
What makes “Coach” Tuberville such a rarity these days is that he actually is committed to sound principles – and is willing to fight tenaciously for them.
If the Senator’s many critics were actually concerned about imperiling the common defense, one of two things would have happened long before now: The Pentagon would have suspended the illegal activity that initially precipitated Sen. Tuberville’s hold, namely, the use of federal funds to facilitate abortions for the small number of servicewomen seeking them. That could have been done with dispatch to allow the Congress or the courts to adjudicate the matter.
Alternatively, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer would have scheduled individual votes on one or more of these officers’ ostensibly-urgently-needed promotions. He could have done that at any time, but has chosen not to do so.
Neither has happened because Senator Tuberville’s critics regard the U.S. military these days as an instrument for political warfare, not the shooting kind. What really is putting our national security at risk is embroiling the armed services in abortion or other racially charged distractions like Critical Race Theory indoctrination, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion quotas, LGBTQ agendas or transgender accommodations.
Every minute spent training our men and women in uniform about the “systemic racism” of America, that color or gender, not performance should determine promotions, or the necessity of getting others’ pronouns right, is time not spent preparing them for war. The potential consequences are especially grave insofar as the U.S. military can ill-afford to be anything but at top readiness at a moment when the Chinese Communist Party is preparing for conflict with Taiwan and probably us – and may be further emboldened to engage in it if we are perceived as divided and weak.
That dangerous perception can only be reinforced by the dismal quality of many among the leadership of our uniformed services. As testimony today in the House Armed Services Committee by Army Ranger veteran Will Thibeau will make clear, at least 42 percent of the 300 promotables are publicly on record supporting such manifestations of the cultural Marxist makeover of our armed forces.
For that reason alone, none of those officers should be promoted. If anything courts-martial, rather than promotions, should be in order for any who have helped politicize the U.S. military. That is especially true of General C.Q. Brown, who has not only championed the Marxists’ so-called “woke” agenda as the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. He has also grievously mismanaged that service – to the point that even its Secretary, Frank Kendall, has felt compelled to launch no fewer than five task forces to identify and correct deficiencies that have rendered it unprepared for war with the CCP.
Thank God for the principled, patriotic Tommy Tuberville and the opportunity he has created for the Senate to prevent real damage to the national security by rejecting General Brown’s promotion and that of others unfit to lead our military at a time such as this.
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Frank J. Gaffney acted as an Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration. He is currently the Executive Chairman of the Center for Security Policy, Vice Chairman of the Committee on the Present Danger: China and author of The Indictment.
Photo ” Tommy Tuberville” by Tommy Tuberville.
