The American military is tasked with overseeing the protection of the U.S. homeland from both external and internal threats. So why is its leadership obsessed with forcing U.S. taxpayers to subsidize abortion?
In recent months, Pentagon leaders, congressional Democrats, and establishment Republicans have been attacking Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., over the latter’s protest of the Defense Department’s abortion policy, which uses taxpayer dollars to pay for service members’ travel expenses to obtain abortions. Rather than allow the Senate Armed Services Committee to confirm Biden’s military nominees en mass, Tuberville has forced the committee to vote on them one at a time.
The Alabama Republican has pledged to continue his protest until the Pentagon revokes the policy.
Tuberville’s critics have often — and baselessly — claimed that his stand is harming U.S. “national security” and “military readiness.” If that were true, then why aren’t they calling on the Defense Department to abandon its abortion policy, which, according to unofficial reports obtained by Tuberville’s office, show that only 12 service members have used it to date?
In case it wasn’t obvious to the leftists in the upper echelons of the Pentagon, there are much bigger issues implicating U.S. national security than forcing American taxpayers to bankroll abortions. Here are just a few of the things they should be focusing their time and energy on.
1. Protecting U.S. Troops Stationed Abroad
Following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre of Israelis, U.S. forces stationed throughout the Middle East have been under constant bombardment from Iranian-backed proxies. Earlier this week, DOD officials announced that nearly 50 U.S. service members across Syria and Iraq have been “injured by drone or rocket attacks” from Oct. 17 to Oct. 26.
Thirty-two of the injuries came from al-Tanf in southern Syria while 13 are from al Asad Air Base in western Iraq. Roughly half have been classified as “traumatic brain injuries,” according to the Pentagon.
2. Fixing the Military’s Recruiting Crisis
Between President Biden’s foreign policy failures and the Pentagon “pride” parties, it’s not surprising that almost every branch of the U.S. armed forces missed their respective FY2023 recruiting goals.
Last month, Navy Recruiting Command announced that America’s maritime force fell more than 7,000 active-duty sailors short of its 2023 goal. As The Federalist reported, the Navy “also missed its targets for new active-duty officers and reserve officers by 452 and 773 enlistees, respectively.” Meanwhile, the Army fell about 10,000 troops short of its 2023 targets.
To compensate for its recruiting shortfalls, the military has taken several actions in recent years that lower entrance standards for new members. These policies include scrapping basic education qualifications and accepting those who perform poorly on entrance exams.
3. Providing Basic Needs to U.S. Troops
If U.S. troops are willing to sacrifice basic freedoms to serve their country, the least the military could do is provide these members with the basic necessities they were promised.
In September, the Government Accountability Office published a bombshell report detailing the horrific conditions of several of America’s military installations. In addition to reports of bedbug and roach infestations, the analysis also listed poor water quality, inoperable air conditioning units, mold, and inadequate waste disposal as common problems across bases.
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Other recent reports have detailed how the military has failed to provide thousands of U.S. National Guardsmen with “bonuses they were promised for signing up” to serve, with some payments having “been missing for years.” These findings came weeks before the Pentagon was set to slash overseas service members’ cost-of-living allowances for the second time this year.
4. Deterring Red China
Led by the iron fist of dictator Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party is increasingly becoming more aggressive toward the United States and its allies.
In the South China Sea, tensions have become white-hot between China and the Philippines, the latter of which disputes the CCP’s territorial claims to the region. Last month, several Chinese vessels rammed two Filipino ships “off a contested shoal in the South China Sea,” where Beijing has spent years developing manmade militarized islands. According to the Associated Press, the incident occurred after China’s coast guard “formed a blockade … to prevent two Philippine coast guard ships and two boats from delivering food and other supplies to Filipino forces stationed at Second Thomas Shoal aboard a marooned navy ship.”
Beijing’s actions in the South China Sea come on top of their increasingly aggressive behavior toward Taiwan, the island nation located roughly 100 miles off China’s eastern coast that the CCP claims as its own. On what appears to be a daily basis, the PLA conducts air and naval exercises throughout Taiwan’s air defense identification zone and surrounding waters, forcing Taiwan’s military to deploy its own military craft in response.
The CCP has regularly threatened to take the sovereign nation by force if Taipei continues to defy China’s calls for so-called “reunification” with the mainland.
