CLARION, Pa. — The following was submitted by Ray McGunigle, USAF Veteran, Da Nang, Vietnam 1965-67:
Mr. Rathfon of the local Republican Party recently challenged the statement on a billboard put up in Shippenville which calls attention to Trump referring to fallen members of the U.S. military as “losers” and “suckers”. The reporting upon which that allegation was made is an article by the Editor in Chief of the Atlantic Magazine, award winning journalist Jeffrey Goldberg. So you have here one of the most respected journalists in the country interviewing high level pentagon and White House officials who have traveled with Trump to military cemeteries at Arlington and in France. Weigh that against a draft-dodging President with a lifelong disdain for the military who is credited with publicly stating over 22,000 lies during his time in office.
No, these comments by Trump ring too true to form to be made up. This is the President who relied on a podiatrist friend of his super rich father to bestow on him 5 (FIVE) draft deferments during the Vietnam War period for alleged bone spurs which, film clips from the time reveal, never hindered his disco dancing or golf game throughout the late 60’s and early 70’s.
Trump’s own niece in her recently published book, describes how when Don, Jr. mused about joining the military, Donald Trump threatened to disinherit him, repeating his mantra that the military was for “losers”.
Look at how Trump handled the death of Senator and former Vietnam POW survivor John McCain. When Trump saw the flag at the White House lowered to half-mast in respect to McCain, Trump ordered it raised back up. Only after the Commanders of the American Legion and VFW protested in immediate messages to the White House, did Trump relent and allow the flag to be lowered. And then there is that comment: “people say John McCain was a hero because he was shot down and captured. I like the ones that didn’t get captured.” These are HIS OWN WORDS. Note also that McCain’s widow, Cindi McCain – a lifelong Republican — is so outraged over Trump’s treatment of her husband and the military as a whole that she is now appearing in advertisements FOR JOE BIDEN.
When Trump ordered the drone assassination of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian military retaliated on Jan. 2 of this year with an attack on an Iraqi air base and 8 American GIs were medevac’d out with concussions, Trump gloated that the Iranian strikes caused no damage and just gave some soldiers “headaches”. The Commander of the VFW demanded an apology from Trump on behalf of these injured soldiers. He has yet to receive one.
Last year, US intelligence revealed that the Russians had placed a bounty on the heads of American soldiers serving in Afghanistan. Trump has had various meetings and frequent person to person phone calls with Putin since then, but, by Trump’s own admission, HE STILL HAS NEVER RAISED THE ISSUE OF RUSSIAN BOUNTIES ON US SERVICEMEN with Putin.
I could call up many other examples, such as his calling the Joint Chiefs of Staff, babies and losers, his spat with a Gold Star family (the Khans), his “condolence” call to a widow of a US soldier who died in combat in Niger in which Trump couldn’t even remember the soldier’s name (it was La David Johnson), his slap at the SEALs “why didn’t they get Bin Laden much earlier?”. And combine that with the open and frank disgust with his treatment of the military in published statements by uniformed members of his own staff: Generals Mattis and Kelley, Admirals Mullen and McRaven.
There simply is NO CASE to be made to excuse Trump’s despicable unpatriotic treatment of our men and women in uniform past and present. He is clearly unfit to serve as Commander in Chief. And this old vet applauds efforts to bring these facts to public attention.
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