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Sen. Tuberville says 'woke' military has 'people doing poems on aircraft carriers' [1]

['Daily Kos Staff']

Date: 2023-09-07  

Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s war on military readiness continues as he refuses to back down from his one-man blockade of top-level military promotions and confirmations. All because the military provides access to completely legal medical procedures for military members in need. Top military brass have launched a public relations counteroffensive, taking their growing anger directly to the media. Recent polling shows Alabama’s voters want Tuberville’s stunt to end as much as military leaders do.

On the defensive now, Tuberville is going on a PR tour of his own to defend his position in the face of growing criticism. On Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle,” Tuberville was asked about the op-ed written by the secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, who lambasted Tuberville’s “dangerous hold on senior officers.” Tuberville’s response was “anti-woke” nonsense:

There's no second place in war, okay? We have to have the best. And right now, we are so woke in the military. We're losing recruits right and left. Secretary Del Toro of the Navy, he needs to get to building ships, he needs to get to recruiting, and he needs to get wokeness out of our Navy. We've got people doing poems on aircraft carriers over the loudspeaker. It is absolutely insane, the direction that we're headed in our military. And we're headed downhill, not uphill.

For a man who ran a campaign that was jingoistically pro-veteran, even though evidence of his charity work for veterans was dubious, this is still quite a wow defense.

@acyn, who monitors right-wing media, posted on X, the platform formally known as Twitter, and the responses were in kind.

RELATED STORY: Military leaders speak out to push Tuberville on nominations

A Navy vet had this point to make.

x A list of things I have done on an aircraft carrier:



-Madden '14

-HALO

-Foc'sle Follies

-Drank half a bottle of ghost pepper hot sauce

-Bought a caramel macchiato

-Actual combat operations

-Gotten yelled at by the air boss

-Drank warm beer on the flight deck

-Ran on the same… — Aircraft Carrier Poet Roger Misso (@RogerMisso) September 7, 2023

Former not-Republican-enough Rep. Denver Riggleman of Virginia went right at Tuberville.

x There are a lot of “poems” in the military, Tommy. If you ever served, you would know. Marching “poems”, toasting “poems”… maybe even some politically incorrect “poems”.



But you wouldn’t know that. — Denver Riggleman (@RepRiggleman) September 7, 2023

A quick history lesson.

x Let's hope they don't start singing! https://t.co/njtzuW4C2W — Mary Purviance (@MaryPurvia77887) September 7, 2023

Finally, here’s a poem by a World War II veteran who fought at the Battle of the Bulge, Samuel Manashe. It is called “November” and was inspired by Samuel’s memory of finding piles of apple cores in the attic of a home he came across during his time in Europe. Manashe is no longer with us, but his words remain:

Now sing to tarnish and good weathering A praise of wrinkles which sustain us Savory as apples whose heaps in attics Keep many alive through old winter wars

RELATED STORIES:

A majority of Alabama voters want Tuberville to end his blockade of military promotions

Tuberville's hold on military promotions is undermining national security, defense secretary says

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/7/2191984/-Sen-Tuberville-says-woke-military-has-people-doing-poems-on-aircraft-carriers

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