Last week, the United States and allied nations observed a significant milestone in world history: the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
By land, air and sea, this massive military operation unleashed the largest amphibious assault known to the world. More than 18,000 paratroopers dropped onto the beaches of Normandy; more than 14,000 dispatches from Allied air forces provided cover; nearly 7,000 naval vessels participated, including more than 132,000 ground troops who swam ashore amid heavy German artillery.
American families lost 2,500 service members on D-Day alone. All told, as we know, more than 400,000 Americans died in uniform during World War II serving their country. These courageous patriots defended America’s standing as the beacon of hope and freedom around the world.
The sacrifice of [the] American people to back the war effort allowed the United States to flex its military superiority alongside the Allied Forces. That effort vested the Axis Powers, defeating their authoritarian regimes and ending the Holocaust, where 6 million Jewish people lost their lives. They were murdered.
At every opportunity, Barbara and I are honored to greet veterans who come to Washington D.C. in what we call Honor Flights to visit the World War II Memorial. A World War II hero and former Senate Majority Leader here in the Senate, Bob Dole, came to be my best friend. He took me, a fellow Midwesterner, under his wing when I first came to the United States Senate.
My departed friend brought uncommon courage to the battlefield, and we all know he brought principled leadership to the United States Senate. His mentorship made a lasting impression on me and my work in Congress. That includes a non-negotiable tenet of America’s national security, which is Peace through Strength.
You see, widespread isolationist sentiment kept the United States from entering World War I and World War II. Americans stayed on the sidelines until the cost of aggression was too high, and the threat to the U.S. became obviously more acute.
Separated as we are from Europe and Asia by two vast oceans, and wishing no one any harm, Americans would naturally feel we ought to be left alone and ignore foreign conflicts.
Here’s the lesson for today --the United States learned this lesson from World War II: Preventing and stopping aggression very early is much less costly in dollars and lives. We learned what happened when you wait. When unchecked aggression has lit the world on fire, we are forced to fight a devastating world war.
That is why the United States led our allies in creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, better known as NATO. This most successful defensive alliance in history turns 75 this year.
Now, this brings me to the purpose of my comments today. Over the next few months, I’ll be drilling down on the issue of America’s military readiness. I have grave concerns that the U.S. military has too many chinks in its armor.
For the first time in decades, the invincibility of the U.S. military is questionable, which compromises the safety and security of 330 million Americans. Scaling back resources for the U.S. military, year after year, undermines morale, weakens troop preparedness and sends a dangerous signal to America’s allies, as well as our adversaries.
None of us, including this Senator, need a crystal ball to see what’s on the horizon if the United States of America allows our military to wither on the vine. Unless Washington turns things around, the slippery slope that we're on will trigger an avalanche of no return.
The U.S. military can’t afford to play second fiddle to anybody, or any country, anywhere. Our adversaries around the world take great delight when defense hawks clash here in the Congress, with those who want to slash Pentagon spending to spend more on social programs. The Guns and Butter debate takes place every year when appropriators open and close the public purse.
A recent Gallup poll gauging the public’s pulse on the U.S. military surprised me. I hope it surprised a lot of my colleagues. While I’ve long known Congress doesn’t earn high approval from the public, I didn’t expect public confidence in the military to slide to a level not seen since the threats to U.S. power during the Cold War. It dipped down to 60 percent in 2023, compared to a record-high of 85 percent following the Gulf War in 1991, and rising again after the attack in New York on 9/11.
Just two weeks ago on Memorial Day, communities across Iowa and nationwide honored fallen hometown heroes. These are the beloved sons and daughters who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country, leaving their dreams and grieving Gold Star families behind.
Throughout American history, tens of millions of American patriots put their lives on the line to protect U.S. national security, defend our allies and fight tyranny and terror from distant shores.
Since my first term in the United States Senate, I’ve worked hard to advocate for strengthening combat readiness and ensure our troops have what they need to do their job. As a Pentagon watchdog, my efforts to root out waste, fraud and abuse are rooted in one fundamental principle. That principle is, the top priority of the federal government is national security. Period.
The phrase “Peace through strength” has become known as the Reagan Doctrine and was espoused by my good friend from Russell, Kansas, Senator Dole. This philosophy aligns with my crusade to fix the fiscal mess that undercuts the Department of Defense and undermines the morale of our troops. Every dollar lost to fraud is one less dollar for military readiness.
However, my bipartisan work on this issue shows I’m not for writing the Pentagon a blank check. Protecting taxpayer dollars and boosting military readiness aren’t mutually exclusive.
On January 8, 1790, in his first annual address to Congress, President George Washington said, “to be prepared for war is one of the most [effectual] means of preserving peace.”
Our nation’s 40th president continued President Washington’s legacy. At the nominating convention 44 years ago in Detroit, Ronald Reagan said, “We know only too well that war comes not when the forces of freedom are strong, but when they are weak. It is then that tyrants are tempted."
During his eight years in the White House, President Reagan modernized the U.S. Armed Forces, the U.S. Army grew by two active divisions and the U.S. developed new weapons systems to thwart nuclear attacks. Reagan stared down the “Evil Empire” -- those are his words as he referred to the U.S.S.R. -- and ended the Cold War. The Reagan Doctrine taught us really what works.
On the other hand, the appeasement of Presidents Obama and Biden has only incentivized our adversaries to take another inch.
Think of the uncertainties that we have today that arguably stems from the Obama administration airlifting pallets of cash to Iran, followed by the Biden administration lifting sanctions.
Given their public actions, I wasn’t too surprised when FBI whistleblowers recently came to me with records showing just how easy on Iran the Obama-Biden administration really was.
Their own Secretary of State, John Kerry, actively worked to prevent dangerous Iranians from being arrested in order to protect this reckless negotiation that ended up being the Iran nuclear deal.
It’s never been a secret that Iran uses its wealth to underwrite terrorism in the hopes of wiping Israel off the map. And they also have a target on the United States.
To give another example, think of the uncertainty in Eastern Europe. When Vladmir Putin annexed Crimea in 2014, the world blinked. Now, he’s waging war in Ukraine and itching to knock down the doors of the liberated Baltic states, Poland and elsewhere to resurrect the old Soviet Union.
I want to remind my colleagues and the American people what the Russian president said in 2005 during his annual state of the nation message. He called -- can you believe this -- the collapse of the Soviet empire, “The greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.”
Something else Ronald Reagan said rings as true today as it did 40 years ago.
He declared the Soviets, “must be made to understand we will never compromise our principles and standards [or] ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire. To do so would mean abandoning the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.”
Eighty years after D-Day, our nation is at a crossroads. As we look ahead towards our nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026, America can’t afford to blink.
I never imagined the lessons of the Holocaust would be questioned on U.S. college campuses, particularly after the unprovoked atrocities and murders of innocent civilians on October 7, last year, by Hamas.
I never imagined isolationism would fuel Putin’s brazen efforts to restore the old Soviet Union.
And let’s not forget President Xi has made no bones about his mission to usurp America’s global leadership. American leadership has created the conditions for countries to pursue independence, self-determination, and freedom.
In contrast, President Xi seeks to expand China’s global footprint through his sinister Belt and Road Initiative, debt trap diplomacy and outright military bullying. All of these tactics aim to export the Chinese Communist Party’s model of state control over citizens' lives and exert a neo-imperial domination over countries all around the globe.
With intention, the Communist Chinese government silenced the 35th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Communist leaders have all but scrubbed the murder of protestors by armed police and 180,000 troops from Chinese public memory.
Let there be no mistake. Authoritarian regimes use any means necessary to censor free speech, snuff out economic freedom and persecute religious freedom. When Putin and Xi talk about a multi-polar world, they mean a world in which they can dominate smaller countries against that country’s citizens' will.
In another speech, I will shine a light on the religious persecution happening against groups like the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, Tibetan Buddhists and Christians in China, as well as Crimean Tatar Muslims and Evangelical Christians in Ukraine.
Our Constitution guarantees freedoms of speech, religion, press, assembly and the right to peaceably petition the government.
As we look forward to our Independence Day, I encourage all Americans to recognize and appreciate these freedoms. And, if Americans want to guarantee these freedoms, peace and prosperity for generations to come, we cannot blink in our commitment to promoting Peace through Strength.
If America doesn’t lead, our allies won’t follow, and our enemies will no longer fear us.
I’ll close with one more piece of sage advice from President Reagan: “If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
I yield the floor.
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