Earlier this week, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., a former college football coach who never wore the uniform of this country, changed his blanket hold on more than 400 top military promotions. Now he’s only holding up about a dozen promotions. “I’m releasing everybody,” he told reporters Tuesday. “I still got a hold on, I think, 11 four-star generals. Everybody else is completely released from me.”
Tuberville has opened a can that won’t easily be closed. That’s why the Senate needs to immediately change its rules to ensure that this type of hold on military promotions never happens again.
On the surface, his new tactic of just holding up the promotions of such high-ranking military officers may seem better than his continuing to force such uncertainty onto hundreds of senior ranking officers, their families and U.S. military units around the world. But it would be a mistake to cheer his release of his destructive “hold” on the promotions of these generals and admirals.
While it’s true that the vast majority of these officers will receive their promotions, we should not be deluded. Tuberville has opened a can that won’t easily be closed. That’s why the Senate needs to immediately change its rules to ensure that this type of unpatriotic and destructive hold on military promotions never happens again.
For example, the Senate could adopt a rule that only lets a senator block one senior-ranking military promotion at a time, and even then only for a limited amount of time before that nomination gets an up or down vote.
In response to Tuberville’s promotion-blocking stunt, which he began in February in protest against the Defense Department’s policy that allows service members to be reimbursed for travel costs related to getting abortions, at least one other GOP senator is now saying he’s holding up the promotions of certain military officers. According to a spokesperson for the office of Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., “Senator Schmitt has placed a hold on a handful of promotions relating to concerns that he has regarding those nominees’ stances or actions relating to divisive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs in the military.” Tuberville has set a dangerous precedent that will most certainly corrupt our military’s leadership.
Imagine a senator making it known that he wants the Army to buy a certain weapons system that’s manufactured in his state and saying to an officer, “You want to be a 4-star someday, go push the Army to make that acquisition.” Even if just one or two generals are held up consistently, it will open the real possibility of severe corruption. Officers will be constantly worried that they have to please each of the 100 senators, instead of doing what’s best for their troops and the mission. Standing up for women, minority or LGBTQ service members under their command, for example, could be considered “too woke” for certain senators.
Our military, in which I proudly served, is known as the most professional in the world, one that’s not corrupt. Contrast ours with China’s military. Its leadership has serious problems with corruption that erodes trust between troops and their leaders and erodes the trust the nation has in its military. Military promotions at every level in China are bought with officers flaunting the corruption with luxury houses and cars. Russia has massive problems with corruption, too. In the United States, we take for granted that our military is made up of dedicated professionals who spend their careers divorced from politics. Tuberville’s stunt takes a wrecking ball to that norm.
Our military cultivates excellent leadership through training and promotions. There is no lateral entry in the military. Every Army general was once a lieutenant; every Navy admiral was once an ensign. Senior military leaders have been tested during careers that span decades. They have spent time at every level learning tactical and operational skills and then schooled in strategic conditions. None has been allowed to skip steps along the way, and none has been allowed to stay in a location they enjoyed or in a job they particularly liked. It’s “up or out.” And “out” really means “out.”
Few junior officers stay in the military long enough to rise through the ranks and gain the experience necessary to reach the “flag rank” of a general or admiral. At the very top of the military profession, the pool of candidates for most senior leaders is small. And, if they can’t move up, they may decide to move out. The option of going outside the military to recruit for senior leadership, as frequently happens in business, is not an option in the armed forces.
That’s why the Senate needs to change the rules now to make sure that no senator is ever able to do again what Tuberville has done and is doing. His continued obstruction damages our military integrity, it weakens our national security and, ultimately, puts our country at greater risk. The damage that he has already done can only be mitigated by new Senate rules that guarantee no other senator follows his lead.
