Take it for what it’s worth, but in my personal experience some of the people who talk the toughest have never been in a fight.
Losing a fight sucks, but if you’ve ever been in a fight you know it also hurts to win one.
You wake up the next morning with sore knuckles, mysterious scrapes and bruises you don’t remember acquiring and wonder, “When the hell did I get hit in the armpit?” Having been in a fight and experienced the consequences, you’re a lot less likely to honk your horn in traffic or give strangers the finger – you know what can happen.
And that brings us to the military.
History tells us that there have been military leaders who wanted to get into a fight so they could prove themselves or build up their resume, but it also tells us there have been military leaders who were reluctant to get in an unnecessary fight because they knew the cost.
Politicians – who risk nothing but votes – can pound a podium and talk tough, while military leaders who have seen combat might say, “Maybe you should think about this some more.”
Tough talk
When Donald Trump had the chance to fight he developed some highly convenient bone spurs and avoided military service.
Already having some experience at ducking personal danger, when protesters got too close to the White House, Trump decided sheltering-in-place suddenly made sense and headed for a bunker. That news got out and made Trump look like a weasel although I don’t know why I think that’s an insult because I’ve never heard of a weasel ducking a fight with a bad case of bone spurs.
Anyway…
Apparently our Commander-in-Chief decided he needed to do something in public to show he wasn’t afraid.
True to form, Trump let someone else do the fighting and law enforcement officials cleared the protesters who stood between Trump and St. John’s church even though the protesters were peaceful.
Once a safe path had been cleared, Trump walked manfully across the street which must have taken a lot of intestinal fortitude because we all know how bad his bone spurs must be at this point in his life.
But as we all know: when the going gets tough, the tough somehow manage to play 18 holes of golf.
Since the area had already been secured by somebody else, posing in front of St. John’s Church showed about as much courage as posing on the beaches of Normandy a week after D-Day.
A politician vs. military leaders
After Trump announced his intention to use the military to control the protests a number of people who ought to know said it was a really bad idea. That included retired Gen. John Allen who was in command of American forces in Afghanistan and had this to say about the current situation:
"It wasn't enough that peaceful protesters had just been deprived of their first-amendment rights—this photo-op sought to legitimize that abuse with a layer of religion."
Mark Esper – a former Army office and current Secretary of Defense…for now – held a press conference and said that regular troops should be used for law enforcement only as a last resort and added:
"We are not in one of those situations now. I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act."
But the guy who knocked it out of the park was former Secretary of Defense and retired Marine General James Mattis. Here’s some of what he had to say:
"Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people -- does not even pretend to try."
"Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.”
"We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values -- our values as people and our values as a nation."
"When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution.”
"Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens -- much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside."
That stuff about Constitutional rights is what led to the cartoon posted above.
I usually end these things by saying, “Stay safe, everyone” – but if Donald Trump gets his way and sends the military to do his fighting, that’s going to be harder than ever.
What was Trump thinking? He should have taken a golf cart to St. John’s.
Thanks Lee.