Thread by @SenDuckworth

16 yrs ago today, the US-led invasion of Iraq began. All this time later, we’re still stuck in two seemingly endless wars. As I recently laid out, our troops & our nation deserve better. There are so many steps we can take to ensure our military remains the strongest in the world

Despite the President’s latest proposal, we can’t just keep throwing together huge defense budgets every year & think that’s enough.

Our power abroad stems from our strength here on U.S. soil. It’s past time we recognize that funding our domestic priorities—like education, healthcare and green energy—actually bolsters our national security.

Because it’s not an either/or. If we want to remain atop the global order, we need a platform that rejects the false choice between looking out for our troops overseas and caring for our families here at home.

But right now, only 29% of Americans b/w 17 & 24 are considered fit to serve in the military. The other 71% either:
- Failed basic English/math tests,
- Couldn’t pass a physical, or
- Were barred from enlisting because they made a mistake years ago that is still on their record

There are easy ways to expand that pool: policies that show both common sense and common decency. One way is to just stop discriminating.

I know that Trump never deigned to put on the uniform, but #BoneSpurs didn’t stop *me* from serving. So let me clear something up for him:

When I was bleeding out in my Black Hawk helicopter, I didn’t care if the troops risking their lives to save me were gay, straight, transgender, black, white, male or female. All that mattered was that they didn’t leave me behind.

Our military is the greatest in the world *because* of our differences, not in spite of them. If you’re willing to put your life on the line for this country and you can do the job, you should be able to serve—no matter how you identify or whether you were born on U.S. soil.

We also have to begin tackling the systemic issues that are robbing us of so many would-be recruits. That starts with addressing the fact that half of young Americans are considered too unhealthy to serve.

Let’s be brutally honest: recent attempts to strip away healthcare from millions were cruel enough. But they were also hypocritical:

Every time our government makes it harder for an American to get healthcare, they’re sapping the military’s potential strength—robbing it of potential Privates or Second Lieutenants—while claiming we need to spend more money making our Armed Forces more powerful.

It’s a similar story when it comes to education. There’s something wrong when 1/3rd of potential recruits can’t serve because they failed the military’s entrance exam or never earned a HS diploma or GED.

That figure’s shocking but not surprising, reflecting the larger reality that half of U.S. adults can’t read books at an 8th grade level.

A 2015 study found that $125 billion of the Pentagon’s budget was lost to bureaucratic waste. Imagine how many more kids would graduate if we invested that in our schools instead. And if we don’t make this investment, imagine how many would-be troops we’d be losing.

Of course, not all the biggest threats over the next 50 years will take the shape of a missile attack. The truth is that #ClimateChange is real, and climate change is here. Investing in #GreenEnergy won’t just help our planet—it’ll also save troops’ lives & make our mil. stronger

Finally, if we want to keep leading on the world stage, we need to reflect on the fact that most of this country has simply accepted—no, seemingly forgotten—that we’re still in the thick of two endless wars.

One of Congress’s most solemn duties is deciding when&how we send Americans into combat by debating and passing Authorizations for Use of Military Force, which set the legal & constitutional basis for military action—& are supposed to define the mission of Americans downrange.

But lately, too many on the Hill have shrugged off that duty, hiding behind the outdated AUMFs that launched the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars more than a decade and a half ago.

Enough of being more worried about political consequences than about our troops in harm’s way. Until we muster up the courage to ask and answer the tough questions that will actually tell our troops what they’re fighting for, we won’t be living up to their sacrifices.

So here’s what I know: unless our eighth-graders can read and our families have healthcare, unless our troops have the latest tech and our bases aren’t flooded, unless everyone who wants and is fit to serve can put on the uniform, our forces will be at a disadvantage.

There is no real choice between caring for our troops and caring about our classrooms. There is no real choice between being a defense hawk and believing in progressive policies. There is no real choice between loving our military and wanting to make it better.

In fact, working to improve our military is exactly what has allowed it to be so great for so long, and it’s exactly what I’ve tried to do from the first moment I woke up in Walter Reed. You can watch my full speech here: bit.ly/2HwADEg