I Like Presidents Who Respect Our Veterans

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Retired Marine Corps General John Kelly served as Donald Trump's chief of staff during the first two years of the Trump administration.   He was, arguably, one of the former President's closest and most trusted advisers.  Early last month General Kelly went on record with Jake Tapper from CNN and confirmed several stories regarding Donald Trump's open resentment of our nation's veterans.   

One of Trump's earliest disses of America's military heroes goes back to 2015 when he was first running for the presidency and told a crowd of supporters that Arizona Senator and Vietnam War POW John McCain was "not a war hero."  Trump rambled on that McCain had been regarded as a hero because he had been captured after the Navy jet that he was piloting had been shot down.  He then added in a cavalier manner, "I like people who weren't captured."  General Kelly also confirmed to Tapper and CNN that Trump had repeatedly referred to McCain and former President George H.W. Bush, who had also been shot down while piloting an aircraft during wartime, as "losers."

General Kelly spoke of Trump's disparagement off a "Gold Star" family during the 2016 presidential campaign, an act Kelly saw as a slight to all Gold Star families, and Trump's deep misunderstanding of the concept of personal sacrifice in time of war.   General Kelly confirmed the story of Trump turning to him on Memorial Day in 2017 as they stood in Arlington National Cemetery among the graves of military members who had been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and saying, "I don't get it.  What was in it for them?"

And obviously Donald Trump did not get it.

Jake Tapper's article with CNN referenced a 2020 article in The Atlantic by editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg which had mentioned Trump's visit to France in 2018 where he was to take part in a commemoration of the century anniversary of World War I by visiting an Allied cemetery.  Trump changed his mind at the last minute and decided not to make the cemetery visit with other world leaders.    While some thought the decision was probably due to Trump's concern about what a light rain that was falling that day would do to his hair, Trump himself chose to redirect the focus to the war dead whose graves the group intended to visit.  He said, "Why should I go to that cemetery?  It's filled with losers."  During that same European trip Trump had referred to the 1,800 US Marines who were killed at Belleau Wood as "suckers" for getting killed.

Trump certainly did not get it.

In 2017 Donald Trump had witnessed a "Bastille Day" parade in Paris, and came home fired up to have a big military parade in Washington, DC, something that he could preside over and that would cast him in the light of a strong leader.  But Trump had conditions for his grand parade.  The French parade had a section for wounded veterans, and Trump told Kelly "Look, I don't want any wounded guys in the parade."  

John Kelly tried to argue with his boss by telling him, "Those are the heroes in our society.   There's only one group of people who are more heroic than they are, and they are buried over in Arlington."

"I don't want them."  Trump said.  "It doesn't look good for me."

And it is, after all, always about Trump.

According to another piece by Goldberg in The Atlantic, this one a profile of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley, Trump expressed his dismay to Milley following a welcoming event for the new Chairman in which a severely wounded officer had sung "God Bless America."  Trump asked General Milley, "Why do you bring people like that here?  No one wants to see that, the wounded."

Not everyone chooses to serve in the military, I understand that.  And having served in the military is not a requirement for being President of the United States, I understand that as well.  Our country has had some exemplary political leaders who honed their leadership skills through the military, and we have also had some great leaders with no military experience whatsoever.

It takes a lot of differing points of view and backgrounds to make a country great.

The military - the men and women who did take the time and make the effort to serve our country in uniform  - did so at great personal cost and sacrifice, sometimes the ultimate sacrifice, and they and their sacrifices must not be forgotten, ignored, or disrespected.

I like Presidents who respect our veterans and who fight to provide them with superior health care, counseling, rehabilitation programs, meals, and safe places to sleep at night.  If we give them anything less, we are just freeloading off of their sacrifices.  

Salute!