A Marine’s response to Democratic Senator’s criticism of General Kelly

After President-elect Donald Trump announced he will tap retired Marine General John F. Kelly to head the Department of Homeland Security some Democrats are finding new ways to criticize the incoming administration for appointing experienced former military leaders.

In particular, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy (D) said “[W]e’ve learned over the past 15 years is that when we view problems in the world through a military lens, we make big mistakes.”

Senator Murphy wants to talk about the failure of military leaders because of the last 15 years of America’s wars, but what he is completely failing to realize is that for the last 8 years, combat operations were run straight from the White House. And perhaps he is forgetting that the Commander in Chief for those eight years has been a non-military political leader.

While we can debate the merits of the wars in the Middle East, one thing that cannot be denied is that allowing political concerns to completely dictate how our military operates has only prolonged the process and caused our men and women in uniform to be in danger longer than they should have been.

Perhaps the most famous incident of this thinking is the fact that General James Mattis, who has been nominated by PEOTUS Trump to serve as Defense Secretary, was forced into retirement for disagreeing with the tactics of the Obama administration.

But imagine if our military leaders were given a clear mission and then left alone to execute that mission. I don’t defend all of the generals because many of them should have stood up to the last two Commanders in Chief. However, some stuck around because they knew that their resignation would mean loss of leadership and their ability to protect the men and women under them.

Odysseus says, “In war, old men talk and young men die.” Senator Murphy, has spent a great deal of his career “serving” his community in the legislature and now his country in the Congress/Senate. Might I recommend that if he is hesitant to allow some of these generals to lead, why not put on a uniform. The majority of Murphy’s adult life, we have been in a war, yet he’s done a lot of talking.

If we want to talk about failures, let’s talk about failures in foreign policy. In Senator Murphy’s four young years on the Foreign Relations Committee we have watched the creation of ISIS, a complete withdrawal and loss of ground in Iraq, and as of eight weeks ago, a direct attack on a U.S. Navy vessel, which the Houthi rebels barely realized we responded to.

General Kelly and his family are owed a debt this country can never fully repay. Four days after his son was killed in action, General Kelly spoke to an audience without ever even mentioning his name or his sacrifice. General Kelly and General Mattis embody what it means to put service over self and to contribute to something greater than themselves. If members of Congress would do that, maybe they wouldn’t be so worried about their next re-election and would focus on the pressing issues of this country — our crushing debt and the lack of foreign policy that continues to put our servicemen and women in danger.