Support the Troops: Bring Them Home!

Support the Troops: Bring Them Home!
by Ron Paul | Aug 17, 2026


Last week we heard that US sailors and Marines aboard the USS Abraham
Lincoln and other ships in the Middle East were being fed food that,
from photos that surfaced in the media, looked worse than what you
would feed a dog. Parents and spouses of service members risked
disciplinary action against their loved ones to highlight to the US
Navy Secretary and to the media the revolting conditions aboard the
carrier, which has been at sea with no port of call for a record
period of time.

Stories of broken toilets, filth, and mold everywhere were reported in
the media last week. One troubling story in the Guardian claimed that
multiple sailors aboard the Lincoln have attempted suicide due to the
unbearable conditions aboard the carrier.

The Trump Administration’s response speaks volumes about its claim to
“support the troops.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth immediately
brushed off concerns about conditions aboard the Abraham Lincoln as
“fake news.” He didn’t utter a word of concern for the troops he so
enjoys being photographed working out with. He didn’t order a thorough
review of the conditions on the ship. He didn’t promise to get to the
bottom of things. He didn’t express any concern for the troops. He
just said reports were “fake news.”

President Trump responded to the allegations even more callously than
Hegseth. When a reporter told him that family members are concerned
about conditions aboard the Abraham Lincoln, President Trump said, “no
they’re not.” When asked whether the carrier’s record eight-month
deployment was too long, he responded, “no no no, not nearly long
enough.”

I am sure the parents and spouses of the sailors aboard the Lincoln
would disagree.

By the end of last week, we learned at least some of the reasons for
the lack of decent food for the troops. According to a report in the
New York Times, on the first day of the US attack on Iran, Iran
responded by nearly destroying the US Naval base in Bahrain. That
base, the (former) home of the US 5th Fleet, had been a major
logistics hub for the US in the region and was critical for re-supply
of fresh food for the service members on board. With Bahrain no longer
capable of functioning as a major US base, the fallback was a US
facility on the tiny island of Diego Garcia, more than 2,000 miles
away.

There is a bigger lesson here than lack of planning for Trump’s war of
choice on Iran. Our Constitution – the supreme law of the land – only
allows the United States to go to war if the war is approved
beforehand by “the people’s branch” of government, the US Congress.
There is a reason for this. Unless under direct attack, the use of the
military must be subject to a thorough public debate. It was never
meant to ride on the whim of a President. Given the opportunity, the
executive is much more likely to take the country to war for reasons
not related to defending our country. That is the chief reason we
broke with King George in the first place.

As I always said on the campaign trail, the best way to support the
troops is to bring them home. Never has that message been clearer than
today.

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