OPINION:
Unfortunately, retired Rear Adm. Tom Jurkowsky gets it totally backward when he chastises Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama for blocking promotions for more than 250 military generals and admirals (“With our national security at stake, Tuberville must lift hold on military promotions,” web, July 6).
He claims it is doing grave harm to our nation’s readiness and national security.
Mr. Tuberville blocked these promotions because of his objections to a Department of Defense policy that allows service members to take leave and covers their expenses if they choose to have an abortion. Mr. Jurkowsky claims the senator is politicizing the military, but in truth the military has politicized itself. Mr. Tuberville is merely shifting focus back to what’s truly important for our nation’s readiness and national security (i.e., fighting wars).
Abortions, sex-change operations, gender therapy, drag queen story hours and the like do not need to be part of our military, let alone funded by taxpayers. Sadly, our military members are spending less time focusing on fighting and more time on things like proper pronoun usage and diversity, equity and inclusion.
Mr. Jurkowsky contends that Mr. Tuberville’s actions send a poor signal to our allies and friends. I contend just the opposite. They show that we will shift our focus away from being politically correct and get back to military readiness.
If some flag-rank officers must “cool their jets” for a while, so be it. Most of them have already served for three decades or more. The delay of a promotion or duty change by a few months will not kill them.
PATRICK McGINN
California, Maryland
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