Alan Zendell, November 10, 2023

My state is celebrating Veterans’ Day today. That naturally brings up the challenges currently facing our military. In an unusual twist, this year, those challenges go hand-in-hand with challenges facing every aspect of American life. Our military is arguably the only thing protecting the western world from domination by the expansionist ambitions of Russia and China, and militant Islamic extremists who are bent on destroying everything the Judeo-Christian world represents.

The Biden administration has been building new alliances in the South Pacific, the region around the South China Sea, and South America, partly because that’s the best way to prevent Chinese and Russian incursions, but also because America doesn’t have the resources to protect everyone. Without alliances based on common interest and economic benefit, individual nations are not likely to be able to stand against Chinese expansionism, for one. Based on the effort and resources it’s taken to defend Ukraine for the last twenty-one months, it’s difficult to imagine even NATO and a united Europe being able to defend themselves against Russia without American support.

America’s role as defender of freedom and democracy has never been clearer than it is today. Two of our eleven aircraft carrier groups are in the Mediterranean as a deterrent to anyone trying to expand conflict in Gaza. NATO forces, including American military personnel are on alert in every country bordering Russia and Ukraine. And while all this is happening, right-wing extremists within our own government are doing everything they can to hamstring our military.

Tommy Tuberville, whose vast experience as a football coach won him one of Alabama’s Senate seats, has been a one-man wrecking crew standing in the way of hundreds of overdue military promotions, many of which were to fill critical vacancies. Tuberville exposed a serious flaw in the way our government functions. How is it possible that one Senator out of a hundred, with no background in military planning, has enough obstructionist power that the other ninety-nine can only watch helplessly as the Joint Chiefs tear their hair out?

The situation in the House is worse, with the country only a week away from a complete government shutdown. The Republicans who are supposed to be using their slim majority to govern decided that the best way to avert a serious crisis was to take an extended weekend break. The extremists in charge of their caucus, who include Speaker Mike Johnson, have likened any kind of bipartisan solution to treason, and although they make up less than ten percent of their own caucus, they are determined to prevent any reasonable solution that doesn’t meet every one of their demands from being voted on.

Republican extremists, whom many of their colleagues refer to as political terrorists, might as well be taking their cues from Hamas. Hamas is using two hundred plus innocent hostages to prevent the Israeli military from punishing them for their murderous assault on defenseless Israeli civilians. The MAGA wing of the House Republican Caucus is holding the entire United States government hostage, and with it the engines that drive our economy and keep us secure.

Their putative leader, Donald Trump, will spend most of the year before the 2024 election standing trial on nearly a hundred felony and civil counts. In his spare time, he eggs on the extremists and threatens defectors’ careers and families, while running for president on a platform that could have been drafted by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Yesterday, he advocated framing political opponents that get in his way and using the criminal courts to neutralize them. I was shocked that even Trump would say something like that – until he added, “That’s what I would do.”

A former president who is a raging narcissist with no moral compass believes that anything he would be willing to do ought to define the rules of the game for everyone. Nothing is too craven or unethical. Whether it’s recklessly attacking anyone who opposes him, having no respect for truth, or subverting the Constitution, Trump would set the bar for competition so low our elections would look like mafia gang wars.

I hope I’m wrong, but I can’t see any way the country enters the holiday season without being in a serious crisis that worsens daily. Imagine this horror show: the 2023 holiday season is projected to be the busiest travel period we’ve ever had. Consider the strain on an air traffic control system that is already short 3,000 people, operating under a government shutdown – no new positions, no respite, no training, no resources available for anything except daily operations for one of the most stressful jobs in the country. Add in a blizzard or two, and would you want to be flying over the holidays?

On this Veterans’ Day, the MAGA crew are threatening not only our service personnel, but every American who believe in our Constitution.