Dead Drop: August 4

COACH TUBERVILLE IS SHOCKED: Shocked to find politics in Washington. Shortly after the Senate adjourned for about a five week summer break, the Pentagon announced that President Joe Biden had selected Colorado Springs, CO at the permanent home for the U.S. Space Command Headquarters. In its waning days, the Trump administration had announced its decision to put the headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama. A legitimate debate can be conducted about the best place to house the Space Command’s mothership (and, as some people have pointed out, Colorado IS closer to space than Alabama).  But Senator Tuberville and friends have a sneaking suspicion that politics may have played a role. Of course – folks elsewhere believe politics were involved in the January 2021 decision to move the outfit from its current location in Colorado Springs to Huntsville. White House officials say this week’s decision was made purely on the merits. Pentagon officials privately admit that decision makers were not unaware that Tuberville has been holding up hundreds of flag and general officer promotions and assignments in a dispute over DOD policies. Senator Tuberville has attracted a lot of negative attention as a side effect of his stance on promotions. For example The Washington Postdid a deep dive on Tuberville’s false (or mis-remembered) tales of his father’s World War II exploits.  Meanwhile, Tuberville vows that the HQ location dispute is “..absolutely not over.”  To quote another military expert, John “Bluto” Blutarsky, “Over? Did you say ‘over’?  Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!” (Editor’s note: Before you send us an email informing us that it was the Japanese who bombed Pearl Harbor, we recommend some deeper research on the source, John Blutarsky.)

NO THANKS FOR YOUR SERVICE:  A new public opinion poll says that the U.S. public’s confidence in the military has reached it’s lowest point in over two decades. According to a Gallup poll, only 60 percent of Americans expressed “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in today’s armed forces. Noteworthy, is that the biggest dip in public support for the military comes from Republicans who traditionally have been highest on the troops. Politico notes that in the past three years, Republican confidence in the military “plunged from 91 percent to 68 percent.” Among the things analysts speculate may have chipped away at public pride in the military, is the messy exit from Afghanistan. Seems to us a bit unfair to blame the military for that, since the disorderly withdrawal was the product of political decisions made by two administrations. No word on any Gallup polls on the military’s confidence in its political leaders.