A General's Bitter Memorial Day Memory

 

Memorial Day. A day to remember and give our respect, thanks and prayers to those who sacrificed their lives to protect democracy at home and across the globe.

This Memorial Day we should also pause to consider what an American military hero, General John Kelly, shared with us about someone he closely served as chief-of-staff and who is currently hoping to become our president and commander-in-chief.

On Memorial Day 2017 then-President Donald Trump made the obligatory presidential visit to Arlington Cemetery in the company of General Kelly. There, in front of the grave of Kelly’s own son, Trump questioned why anyone would sacrifice their life in battle. “I don’t get it. What’s in it for them?”

One year later, according to General Kelly and three other staff members who were present, Trump insisted on canceling a scheduled visit to the American Cemetery in Paris to honor the Americans who gave their lives in liberating France. “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” He went on to refer to marines dying in France as “suckers.”

After returning from France, Trump asked Kelly to develop a military parade to demonstrate to the world the strength of America’s military hardware but advised Kelly not to include any wounded veterans in the parade. According to Kelly, the following conversation commenced:

“Look, I don’t want any wounded guys in the parade,” Trump insisted.

“Those are the heroes,” Kelly replied. “In our society, there’s only one group of people who are more heroic than they are – and they are buried over in Arlington.”

Trump didn’t care. “I don’t want them. It doesn’t look good for me.”

General Mark Milley repeats a similar experience. At an event honoring veterans, a veteran who survived war but his legs did not, was introduced to Trump. Trump was harsh with Milley afterward, “Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, see the wounded.” He ordered his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to never repeat that offense.

There was an early clue that Trump had no respect for our military heroes when on national television in 2015 he argued that John McCain, who, when a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam was offered the opportunity to be released from the POW camp because McCain’s father was an admiral, but refused the North Vietnamese offer saying he did not deserve preferential treatment over the other Americans in captivity, is “not a war hero…because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

While McCain did not defend himself against Trump’s remarks, he did defend a Gold Star family that Trump was being hostile towards in 2016 because the parents of a slain soldier were Muslim and they had made public they would not be voting for Mr. Trump.

“In recent days, Donald Trump disparaged a fallen soldier’s parents. He has suggested that the likes of their son should not be allowed in the United States – to say nothing of his entering its service. I cannot emphasize enough how strongly I disagree with Mr. Trump’s statement,” McCain said. “I hope Americans understand that the remarks do not represent the views of our Republican Party, its officers, or candidates.”

But when our Republican Party, its officers and its candidates insist on supporting Trump to be their leader after Trump’s feelings about our servicemen and women who have given their lives so others might live in freedom have been a matter of record, how can they not be associated with such unpatriotic, uncaring thinking?

Those who smile when they see Trump hug the American flag and offer timely salutes may have difficulty questioning whether Trump can actually be this callous towards those who have fallen. They then need to consider those who have actually been in his presence who know firsthand. Here’s what Trump’s former communications director Alyssa Griffin says:

“Despite publicly praising the military and claiming to be the most pro-military president…Trump will fundamentally never understand service the way those who have actually served in uniform will, and it’s one of the countless reasons he’s unfit to be commander-in-chief,” she stated after giving examples of his failure in her presence to have empathy for those who serve and who have fallen.

This is all worth considering given in a handful of months we must make a decision on who is fit to serve as commander-in-chief.

Trump’s Secretary of Defense Mark Esper warns “I think he’s unfit for office. He puts himself before the country. His actions are all about him and not about the country.”

Having worked closely with Trump, General Kelly concludes that Trump “…is a person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about.”

And Trump being restored to the presidency?

“God help us” laments the general.

White is Trump's Favorite Color, Brown Not So Much

 

Finally, Donald Trump is allowing persecuted foreigners to apply and receive refuge in the United States. They began arriving this week. They arrived by jet. Some traveled first class. Their luggage by Louis Vuitton.

And they are white.

Wealthy South African’s peeved at their government’s new policy of redistributing land from extensive land holdings are fleeing what they consider unfair land programs and what their fellow South African Elon Musk sees as communism.

In crafting a more acceptable rationale for opening our borders to the white South Africans, Trump went to his spinning wheel and wove a tale of the South African government turning a blind eye to an excessively high murder rate of white farmers, or as Elon Musk defines it, “genocide.”

Truth is, an average of 20,000 murders occur in South Africa annually. Of those, white victims average a total of 58. An investigation concluded these murders are a result of burglaries and theft gone wrong – not a form of ethnic cleansing or racial revenge.

Why the redistribution? Because of South Africa’s past practice of apartheid. Whites in South Africa make up only 7% of the population yet own 73% of the land. That is because the white population benefited from apartheid whose policy prohibited the native black population from owing property. From the seeds of apartheid, large extensive agricultural operations owned by whites grew and blossomed.

Today’s black South Africans would like to farm as well. But they can’t. The whites own all the farmland.

Therefore, the government is trying to correct the situation and create opportunities and equality for the blacks who are locked out of the farming community by carving parcels from the larger farms and ranches.

Trump says that qualifies them for refugee status. Why? Here's a hint: because they're white.

Meanwhile a Latino who fled his country to escape threats of murder by a violent gang was handcuffed, deported and imprisoned in an El Salvadorian prison known as one of the world’s most inhumane by order of the Trump administration. Not only is he a reasonable candidate for asylum in the US, but he was also granted protection by a federal judge to reside in the US. He must report regularly to Immigration. He does. He must not commit a crime. He hasn’t.

It eventually surfaced that Kilmar Abrego Garcia should have never been deported, much less imprisoned. The Trump administration admitted that it was an unfortunate administrative error. Realizing this, a federal judge ruled that the administration must facilitate Garcia’s return.

That was before The Donald got directly involved. He ignores his administration’s original confession. He is ignoring the judge’s orders. He appealed to the Supreme Court to erase the judicial ruling that he must facilitate Garcia’s return, and he lost.

He has made up a story that Garcia has is a gang member and has a horrific criminal history. When countered that there is no proof that Garcia belongs to a gang, Trump presented a poorly photoshopped picture of Garcia’s knuckles with MS13 written across them in a clumsy tactic to fool the public. Trump says they are tattoos. Anyone who sees the picture can see it looks more like someone typed MS13 on the fist. Photographs of Garcia inside the El Salvador prison show the same hand with no such tattoo.

Trump has delegated the responsibility of keeping Garcia incarcerated and keeping the public misinformed about Garcia to Kristi Noem, Director of Homeland Security and of puppy killing fame. Noem has put Trump’s lies on the HS website turning it from a mere fib to propaganda. Her government website’s home page concentrates on its theme “100 Days of Fighting the Fake News” where she says Homeland Security is committed to countering information provided to the public by the press. She then feeds the public lies about Garcia:

She lies claiming two courts found him guilty of being a member of MS13.

She lies that he was ordered deported in 2019.

She falsely suggests he is a sex trafficker.

She falsely claims he beats his wife.

She falsely contends the Supreme Court did not rule against Trump; that the court ruling only requires the US provide transportation into the US from the border if El Salvador choses to release him and that it is a violation of international law for the US to facilitate his release.

Yet in an interview with ABC Television, Trump contradicts Noem acknowledging he can indeed secure the release with one phone call, “But,” Trump says, “I won’t.”

Garcia has no criminal background. He is not a gang member. He does not beat his wife. He was given protective status as he remains in the US by a federal judge. Another federal judge and a unanimous Supreme Court – a conservative Supreme Court where one-third of the judges were appointed by Trump himself -- has instructed Trump to seek his release. But he won’t. Why?

Here’s a hint: because he isn’t white.