The Secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force launched an offensive on Monday against Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) for blocking military promotions.
Tuberville’s politically driven move “is unfair to these military leaders and their families … and jeopardizes our national security,” the Army’s Christine Wormuth, the Navy’s Carlos Del Toro, and the Air Force’s Frank Kendall wrote in an op-ed by the Air Force. Washington Post. .
Tuberville is blocking the promotions in protest of the Pentagon’s policy of giving military personnel paid leave and travel expenses to have an abortion in another state. His move has left the Army, Navy and Marine Corps without a Senate-confirmed leader and has “prevented the Defense Department from placing nearly 300 of our most experienced and time-tested leaders in critical posts around the world,” they added. leaders to it.
Many top tasks “are performed by acting officials without the full range of legal authorities necessary to make the decisions that will maintain the United States’ military advantage,” the secretaries said.
The officials delved into the personal toll on military families whose servicemen must maintain two homes due to uncertainty over their interim appointments, while spouses and children also remain in limbo.
“These military leaders are forced to endure costly separations from their families – a painful experience they came to know after nearly 20 years of deployment in places like Iraq and Afghanistan,” the secretaries wrote.
“All because of the actions of a single senator.”
Tuberville’s tactics have “eroded” the United States’ “enduring military advantage” and will have a “corrosive effect” on up-and-coming officers seeking senior posts, as they will view lawmakers as not committed to their mission.
The secretaries wrote that bipartisan support for military personnel has been jeopardized by Tuberville, who, instead of “seeking a resolution to the deadlock,” has suggested “that he escalate it.”
“We believe the vast majority of senators and Americans across the political spectrum recognize the stakes of the moment and the dangers of politicizing our military leaders,” they said. “It is time to lift this dangerous hold and reaffirm our senior military leaders.”
The op-ed followed an article in the Washington Post about top Marine Corps general Eric Smith saying he is constrained by the Tuberville voting block.
Tuberville, the former Auburn University football coach who has sparked controversy with ostensibly supportive remarks about white nationalists in the military, claimed Saturday on X that his protest against the Pentagon’s abortion policy is to “get politics out of the military.”
