My Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act empowered the VA secretary to fire bad employees and established legal protections for VA whistleblowers fearing retaliation. Meanwhile, the bipartisan Honoring Our PACT Act, based on legislation I introduced in 2021, forced the VA to care for those suffering from exposure to burn pits in the line of duty. We also passed legislation to help the one million veterans and civilians exposed to contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

But enacting laws is one thing—enforcing them is another. The Biden administration continues to erode the protections established by Congress’s reforms, and the Navy continues to slow-walk claims made by Camp Lejeune veterans, families, and civilians. In essence, our leaders are putting the job security of government bureaucrats over the health of wounded Americans. Congress needs to pass more legislation to force continued change. 

Furthermore, for many veterans, reforms like the PACT Act came far too late. The delay did untold damage to them, their families, and our military. We cannot turn a blind eye to these issues moving forward. Tackling poor base housing, inadequate childcare options, and sub-par enlistee pay head-on should be a priority. Enhancing the career prospects of those returning to civilian life––for example, by expanding science and technology education for service members and their families––is also critical.

The second requirement for policymakers is to keep woke politics out of the armed forces. These institutions exist to stand united against common enemies. Tying them to divisive cultural flashpoints would be a bad idea in the best of times—at this precarious moment, it is downright dangerous. If progressives cannot bring themselves to put the common good above the good of their party and its interest groups, they must rethink their calling to public service. 

Congress should start de-politicizing the military by passing provisions to stop the Biden administration’s attempts to turn our military into a woke social experiment. Some such provisions were included in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act, including a hiring freeze and salary cap on “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” bureaucrats at the Pentagon. (Unfortunately, others were removed by Democrats from the version of the bill that became law.)

Finally, we must do a better job of explaining the importance of the military. Policymakers cannot erase the legacies of Iraq and Afghanistan. On the contrary, we must accept them, for better and for worse. But we must also remind Americans that defending our country is a noble calling––and that our country is very much in need of defense.

Communicating the Stakes

Events of the last few months have made it abundantly clear that Islamic terrorism is still a deadly threat to not only Israelis in the Middle East but also Americans. There is a real danger that Iran and its proxies will continue to escalate the Israel-Hamas War and exploit our porous southern border to attack us on our home soil. In fact, U.S. citizens and service members are already in the crosshairs.

We should be clear that Israel is not asking for a single American soldier. But the steady increase in attacks demonstrates the need for a strong military, if for no other purpose than to deter escalation by our adversaries.

And then there is Communist China. For more than twenty years now, Beijing has pursued a steady, determined strategy to siphon American jobs, steal American property, and coopt American business elites, all by manipulating the global system of trade and communication America established.

This goes beyond “strategic competition.” This is a conflict. Its battlegrounds are the tired Rust Belt towns ruthlessly undermined by deindustrialization, its casualties the jobless young men killing themselves with fentanyl and nitazene made in China. And it is a conflict that Beijing is determined to win. 

America’s losses in the realm of economics and finance are the fault of policymakers who put the global market above the national interest. But the next stage of the U.S.-China conflict could well be military in nature. Beijing’s goals––from seizing Taiwan to dominating the South China Sea––would make Americans utterly dependent on a communist regime that hates them. The change to our country and our way of life would be disastrous, especially in communities already hammered by China’s decades-long assault.

The good news is that we can keep Beijing at bay only if our armed forces remain appropriately staffed, equipped, and focused. This is why the military recruitment crisis matters so much. Feeble leadership, internal divisions, inability to take decisive action, and low troop numbers signal weakness and invite aggression from America’s rivals.

Those of us who understand these stakes have an urgent duty to make them known and inspire the next generation of American heroes. If we fail to do so, or if we fail to restore people’s trust in the institutions we represent, America’s global decline—and the corresponding rise of terrorists and totalitarians who seek our destruction—is all but certain.

About the Author: Senator Marco Rubio 

Marco Rubio is the senior U.S. senator from Florida. He is also the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Image: Creative Commons.