Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has refused to release his hold on 253 senior military officer nominations despite pressure from Democratic and Republican national security leaders on Capitol Hill, former secretaries of defense , and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin .

Tuberville’s hold is not based on any problem with the uniformed nominees but rather his disagreement with a Pentagon policy covering travel for a military member to have an abortion in a state where it’s lawful. There are ways for the senator to advance his cause, but the hold on nominations of our nation’s most senior military personnel is a direct threat to national security, leaving us vulnerable at a historic inflection point in our competition with China.

To start, a blanket hold on hundreds of critical military nominations, a hold completely unrelated to the qualifications of the military officers, has never occurred in our nation’s history. Each year, the Senate Armed Services Committee considers the nominations of approximately 50,000 commissioned officers for promotion. The military selection and promotion process is sacrosanct, with laws designed to ensure only the most qualified are promoted.

On top of the hundreds of military nominees stalled in the Senate, five of the eight Joint Chiefs of Staff and at least three combatant commanders will be changing out soon. While the service vice chiefs nominated for the chief position — Gens. Eric Smith and Randy George, nominated to be commandant of the Marine Corps and chief of staff of the Army, respectively — can perform the duties of the chief in an acting capacity as they await confirmation, it is not in the best interest of our national security to have an officer effectively filling two full-time four-star positions.

This will be the case with Smith, as Gen. David Berger’s term expires this week. To use a football analogy: Having an officer serve in two positions at once is akin to asking a quarterback to simultaneously play offensive tackle. This would be no way to win a football game and is certainly no way to run the greatest fighting force in the world.

Now take your star quarterback off the field completely in the biggest game of the season. That’s what would happen if Gen. C. Q. Brown, nominee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs, is unable to take his position. Brown, who served as commander of the Pacific Air Forces for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, has a unique perspective on the threat from China. To keep him on the sidelines while tensions grow because of a political food fight is irresponsible at best.

If the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the nominated combatant commanders cannot take their positions, and several hundred other flag and general officers cannot be promoted and assume their new duties, we will have a never-before-seen disruption in the top ranks of our military. Some of these positions currently sit vacant and the duties are being performed by lower ranked officers who do not have the experience to assume the massive responsibilities being forced on them by politics. Needless to say, the unforeseen consequences could be devastating.

While some suggest that the Senate majority could use the cloture process to confirm key military nominees one by one, the current Senate Armed Services Committee, Senate, and Pentagon leadership are opposed to this approach, for good reason. Using the cloture process would turn the military nomination process into the chaotic politicking seen in political and judicial confirmations. Furthermore, the number of senior military nominations currently on hold is so large that it would take months, if not years, to work through all the nominations, even if the Senate worked on nothing else.

Tuberville’s shortsighted play puts so much at risk. As a Marine, allow me to play outside adviser for a moment. He should focus his political efforts at the right target. He could transfer his hold to a civilian administration nominee awaiting vote in the Senate. He could propose legislation to block the Pentagon’s policy with which he disagrees. If he has the votes, his position will prevail, just as the Constitution prescribes for policy disagreements. But continuing to hold these military nominees as political hostages endangers national security, jeopardizes civil-military relations, and sets a dangerous precedent as the world contends with an ever-growing geopolitical threat from China.

Arnold Punaro is a former staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee and has been involved in the confirmations for 12 secretaries of defense, 11 Joint Chiefs of Staff chairmen, over 40 service chiefs, and over 2,000 civilian and military senior officials. He has served as a confirmation adviser for the Department of Defense and multiple presidential administrations. His third book, If Confirmed, focusing on the confirmation process for national security nominees, will be published in spring 2024.