For at least three days last week, the second link in the U.S. military chain of command, the man the president would call to order military action in a crisis, was missing in action with no explanation.
“I talked to an older gentleman who was in his late 70s, who said, ‘When I was in high school, I waded through those same floodwaters,” said U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.
In a floor speech that urged Capitol Hill and the White House to prepare the U.S. armed forces to fight and win a future war, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee warned his colleagues war can’t be fought if military recruiting keeps falling short.