US senator has been blocking appointment of commanders for months
The deputy commander of the army. The top missile defense officer. The new commander of the Navy in the Middle East. These are just three of the almost 400 US military leaders who are unable to do their job or can only do it to a limited extent. A Republican senator is obstructing their confirmation in Congress. The US Department of Defense, analysts and party colleagues are alarmed.
Tommy Tuberville is carrying out a "national security suicide mission", said Senator Dan Sullivan, himself a Republican and reserve officer. By the end of the year, 89 percent of high-ranking officer positions in the armed forces will be affected. Tuberville, from the conservative state of Alabama, does not want the Department of Defense to pay soldiers' travel expenses for medical treatment. With the blockade, Donald Trump's ally is trying to force the abolition of special leave and cost coverage for reproductive health, i.e. for intended pregnancies or abortions. As a result, fewer than 100 abortions are carried out over the course of the year.
On Wednesday, the Republican senators tried for several hours in a joint initiative to change the mind of the reluctant Tuberville. "This regulation is illegal and immoral," he said in justification. However, he is completely alone in this: other Republicans in the Senate, also almost all anti-abortionists, consider the country's ability to defend itself to be more important. "The military is taking a big hit from this," rumbled Lindsay Graham from South Carolina, who also belongs to the Trump wing of the party: "I've been trying to work with you for nine months." But in this time, no quick solution has seen the light of day in the chamber of Congress.
Angry party colleagues
All high-ranking officers, including the commander-in-chief, must be confirmed by the Senate, which often happens without much fuss, even across party lines; hundreds of cases every year. But if the chamber of Congress were to vote on each officer individually, the senators would hardly be able to do anything else. So the names have so far been combined into lists. Tuberville is blocking this, but had said he would participate if officers were brought forward individually. But when his party colleagues did so on Wednesday, the senator stuck to his no, which also infuriated his colleagues.
After hours of intense pleading, he prevented a total of 61 confirmations until late in the evening. There was "zero chance" that he would end his blockade, he said. Instead, Tuberville complained that no one from the US government, not even Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, had contacted him for negotiations. For good reason: it is also about preventing possible copycats in the future. If the senators gave in to the rebel's demands, they would be setting a precedent.
Sullivan grumbled to his colleague that China's President Xi Jinping and Russia's head of state Vladimir Putin would "love" what was happening in the Senate: "How stupid can we be?" He warned: "We have a really dangerous world right now." The senator is "100 percent wrong" if he believes that he is not influencing the combat readiness of the US armed forces with his behavior. Nominees are being used as "political pawns," said Senator Joni Ernst. And Graham advised Tuberville that he should sue the military instead if he was unhappy with the arrangement. "That's how you deal with these things."
Lengthy alternative
Several party colleagues fear that capable soldiers could leave the armed forces if Tuberville remains stubborn. "If this becomes the rule, then God help the military," said Graham, a Republican. Anyone could find any reason to question the rules. The whole promotion practice and much more is in danger. "Who the hell wants to serve in the military if your promotion can be kicked to the curb for something you had nothing to do with?" he asked Tuberville.
The senator's blockade is porous, but it requires the entire chamber of Congress to take the time for personal votes on each officer. This Thursday, the Senate did just that, voting in favor of at least the most pressing positions; it confirmed Admiral Lisa Franchetti as the new commander of the Navy and General David Allvin as commander of the US Air Force. The Senate took a similar approach to the new commander-in-chief of the US armed forces, General Charles Brown. He succeeded General Mark Milley.
The Democrats, for their part, are now considering an initiative to prevent the armed forces from being drawn into the ideological trench warfare in Congress and to prevent entire lists from being confirmed. To this end, they want to initiate a temporary change to the voting rules. This would take several weeks of preparation, and parts of the Republicans would also have to agree. But it would not paralyze the legislative process of the world power for months - because a single senator is against abortions.
The obstruction by the Republican senator is causing concerns within the US Department of Defense, as it affects the confirmation of nearly 400 US military leaders. Despite the concerns, Tuberville, a conservative senator from Alabama, continues to block the confirmations due to his opposition to soldiers' travel expenses for medical treatment and efforts to abolish special leave and cost coverage for reproductive health.
Despite intense pleas from his party colleagues and other Republican senators, Tuberville remained firm in his blockade, preventing the confirmation of 61 officers. Senator Graham warned that Tuberville's behavior could influence the combat readiness of the US armed forces, while Senator Ernst described the nominees as "political pawns."
Source: www.ntv.de
