This is one of the least-talked about but most important stories of the day. It’s about how President Biden isn’t merely demanding that all military service members get vaccinated for COVID or resign, he’s insisting that those who decline be dishonorably discharged. He also refuses to recognize an exemption for those previously infected, despite a growing number of studies showing natural immunity to be superior to vaccination.
Republicans and some Democrats in Congress are fighting Biden on this, but with Democrats in charge, it’s doubtful they’ll be able to stop him. And just to be clear, the difference between an honorable and a dishonorable discharge is massive.
As Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall put it, a dishonorable discharge means “you’re never going to be able to get a job again. You’re going to lose your Second Amendment rights. They’re going to take away your VA health care benefits and your education.” Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford added that it means you’ll be “treated worse than a convicted felon.”
We’re talking about United States military troops who have made incredible sacrifices for their country and put their lives at risk to defend us all, many of them for a number of years, being condemned to that kind of treatment and losing all the benefits they've earned simply because they refuse a vaccine they don’t trust or don’t believe they need. Even if you think that’s a legitimate reason to discharge someone from the military, why would anyone be so petty as to condemn people whom we should be treating as heroes to so much hardship by making their discharge dishonorable?
This comes from a man who not only ran as a moderate, unifying return to “decency,” but who also never served a day in the military himself (he got a deferment from Vietnam for having asthma as a teenager.) It’s a nasty, groundless, vindictive and unpatriotic policy, and President Biden should be ashamed of himself for even thinking of imposing it.
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