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General Category => General Forum => Topic started by: Kiwithrottlejockey on December 27, 2018, 11:16:24 am



Title: President “Bone Spurs” aka “gutless coward” (SNIGGER)
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on December 27, 2018, 11:16:24 am

from The New York Times…

Did a Queens Podiatrist Help Donald Trump Avoid Vietnam?

Dr. Larry Braunstein rented his office from the Trumps. Relatives say he was
central to a diagnosis that got the 22-year-old Mr. Trump a medical exemption.


By STEVE EDER | Wednesday, December 26, 2018

(https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/26/us/politics/26trumpfeet1-print/merlin_148338384_73331a1b-e570-43f4-865e-5a68b9c7d940-jumbo.jpg) (https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/26/us/politics/26trumpfeet1-print/merlin_148338384_73331a1b-e570-43f4-865e-5a68b9c7d940-superJumbo.jpg)
The office where Dr. Larry Braunstein practiced podiatry in Jamaica, Queens. His daughters say he came to Donald J. Trump's aid
with a diagnosis of bone spurs during the Vietnam draft. — Photograph: Dave Sanders/for The New York Times.


IN THE FALL of 1968, Donald J. Trump received a timely diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels that led to his medical exemption from the military during Vietnam.

For 50 years, the details of how the exemption came about, and who made the diagnosis, have remained a mystery, with Mr. Trump himself saying during the presidential campaign that he could not recall who had signed off on the medical documentation.

Now a possible explanation has emerged about the documentation. It involves a foot doctor in Queens who rented his office from Mr. Trump's father, Fred C. Trump, and a suggestion that the diagnosis was granted as a courtesy to the elder Mr. Trump.


(https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/26/us/politics/26trumpfeet2-print/merlin_106582369_ed662999-d731-48b4-933d-0d38adbca37a-master768.jpg) (https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/26/us/politics/26trumpfeet2-print/merlin_106582369_ed662999-d731-48b4-933d-0d38adbca37a-superJumbo.jpg)
Mr. Trump, center, during his senior year at the New York Military Academy. He would receive a medical
exemption from the draft a few years later. — Photograph: Fred R. Conrad/for The New York Times.


The podiatrist, Dr. Larry Braunstein, died in 2007. But his daughters say their father often told the story of coming to the aid of a young Mr. Trump during the Vietnam War as a favor to his father.

“I know it was a favor,” said one daughter, Dr. Elysa Braunstein, 56, who along with her sister, Sharon Kessel, 53, shared the family's account for the first time publicly when contacted by The New York Times.

Elysa Braunstein said the implication from her father was that Mr. Trump did not have a disqualifying foot ailment. “But did he examine him? I don't know,” she said.

For decades, Dr. Braunstein saw patients in a congested ground-floor office below Edgerton Apartments in Jamaica, Queens, one of dozens of buildings owned by the Trumps in the 1960s. The family sold the building in 2004, records show.

“What he got was access to Fred Trump,” Elysa Braunstein said. “If there was anything wrong in the building, my dad would call and Trump would take care of it immediately. That was the small favor that he got.”


(https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/26/us/politics/26trumpfeet-a1/00trumpfeet3-master675.jpg) (https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/26/us/politics/26trumpfeet-a1/00trumpfeet3-superJumbo.jpg)
A portrait of Dr. Braunstein from his podiatry school
yearbook. His daughters say he made the diagnosis
as a favor to Fred C. Trump, Donald’s father.


No paper evidence has been found to help corroborate the version of events described by the Braunstein family, who also suggested there was some involvement by a second podiatrist, Dr. Manny Weinstein. Dr. Weinstein, who died in 1995, lived in two apartments in Brooklyn owned by Fred Trump; city directories show he moved into the first during the year Donald Trump received his exemption.

Dr. Braunstein's daughters said their father left no medical records with the family, and a doctor who purchased his practice said he was unaware of any documents related to Mr. Trump. Most detailed government medical records related to the draft no longer exist, according to the National Archives.

In an interview with The N.Y. Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/us/politics/donald-trump-draft-record.html) in 2016, Mr. Trump said that a doctor provided “a very strong letter” about the bone spurs in his heels, which he then presented to draft officials. He said he could not remember the doctor's name. “You are talking a lot of years,” Mr. Trump said.

But he suggested he still had some paperwork related to the exemption, which he did not provide.

Mr. Trump did not mention in that interview any connection between his father and the doctor. The White House did not make Mr. Trump available for a follow-up interview and did not respond to written questions about his service record.


(https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/08/02/us/politics/02trumpvietnam-record/02trumpvietnam-record-popup.jpg) (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/12/26/us/politics/trumpfeet-copy.html)
For many years, Donald J. Trump asserted that it was “ultimately” a high draft lottery number that kept him out of the Vietnam War, rather than a medical condition.
But his Selective Service records, obtained from the National Archives, suggest otherwise. He had been medically exempted for more than a year
when the draft lottery commenced in December 1969, well before he received what he has described as his “phenomenal” draft number.
The New York Times has created a composite image from scans of the document from the National Archives (click on the document to
download in a separate page, then click on the document on that page to download the full-sized version which can be easily read).


An investigation by The New York Times in October showed the extent to which Fred Trump had assisted his son (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-tax-schemes-fred-trump.html) over the years, despite Donald Trump's insistence to the contrary. The investigation revealed that Mr. Trump received the equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father's real estate empire, including the equivalent of $200,000 a year by age 3.

In the 1960s, there were numerous ways to avoid military service, especially for the sons of wealthy and connected families, but Mr. Trump has said that no one pulled strings for him.

“I didn't have power in those days,” Mr. Trump told the biographer Michael D'Antonio in a 2014 interview, according to transcripts shared with The Times. “I had no power. My father was a Brooklyn developer, so it wasn't like today.”

Dr. Alec Hochstein, who worked with Dr. Braunstein in the late 1990s, said the podiatrist had recalled over dinner with their wives how the Trumps had treated him well, including backing off from rent increases. Dr. Hochstein did not remember any discussions related to Mr. Trump's medical exemption.

“He spoke very highly of the Trumps, and they were very open to negotiating with him and letting him stay in the space at a rent he was comfortable with,” Dr. Hochstein said.

Dr. Nicholas Campion, who bought Dr. Braunstein's practice around the time that the Trumps sold the building, which was less than a mile from the Trump family home in Jamaica Estates, said Donald Trump had had a large presence in the community.

“Everybody recalls the Trump family around Jamaica Estates,” Dr. Campion said.


(https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/08/02/us/politics/02trumpcard/02trumpcard-jumbo.png) (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/12/26/us/politics/trump-card-copy2.html)
After his 18th birthday in June 1964, Donald J. Trump registered with the Selective Service,
as did all men his age. It was the summer after his graduation from New York Military
Academy and Mr. Trump recalled filling out his papers with his father, Fred C. Trump,
at the local draft office on Jamaica Avenue in Queens (click on the document to download
in a separate page which contains a link to download a full-sized PDF version).


In recent years, the diagnosis of bone spurs has subjected Mr. Trump to ridicule from critics, who have found it implausible that a healthy and athletic 22-year-old, on the cusp of being declared fit for service, could suddenly be felled by growths in his heels. Mr. Trump's own shifting narrative over the years about his Vietnam-era experience has added to the suspicions.

At the time of the diagnosis, Mr. Trump was navigating a tumultuous period for the country after he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. The United States inducted about 300,000 men into the military in 1968. At that time, a year before the draft lottery was instituted, local boards had to meet quotas and called men for service, leaving those without deferments or exemptions vulnerable.

Mr. Trump had been declared available for service two years earlier and undergone a physical exam, Selective Service records show. That exam did not result in a medical exemption, but he did receive an education deferment. When officials again declared him available for service in July 1968, he had exhausted four education deferments and finished school, so it was the medical exemption that kept him from being eligible.

He has often said it was “ultimately” a high draft lottery number that spared him, but Mr. Trump had been medically exempted for more than a year before the lottery began in December 1969.

Beginning in October 1968, records show, Mr. Trump had a 1-Y classification, a temporary medical exemption, meaning that he could be considered for service only in the event of a national emergency or an official declaration of war, neither of which occurred during the conflict in Vietnam. In 1972, after the 1-Y classification was abolished, his status changed to 4-F, a permanent disqualification.


(https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/21/us/politics/00trumpfeet5/merlin_148338396_eeaa56e9-58d4-4bad-935f-523cafe77ef6-jumbo.jpg) (https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/21/us/politics/00trumpfeet5/merlin_148338396_eeaa56e9-58d4-4bad-935f-523cafe77ef6-superJumbo.jpg)
Dr. Braunstein's office was below Edgerton Apartments, one of dozens of buildings owned by the Trumps in the 1960s. The family sold
the building in 2004, records show. — Photograph: Dave Sanders/for The New York Times.


The New York Times began looking into Mr. Trump's draft record anew when an anonymous tipster suggested that a podiatrist who was a commercial tenant of Fred Trump's had provided the medical documentation.

The tipster offered no names, but The Times used old city directories, held by the New York Public Library, and interviews with Queens podiatrists to identify Dr. Braunstein.

The doctor's daughters said his role in Mr. Trump's military exemption had long been the subject of discussions among relatives and friends.

“It was family lore,” said Elysa Braunstein. “It was something we would always discuss.”


(https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/22/us/politics/00trumpfeet6/00trumpfeet6-master675.jpg) (https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/22/us/politics/00trumpfeet6/00trumpfeet6-superJumbo.jpg)
Dr. Braunstein's daughters said his role in Mr. Trump's military
exemption had long been the subject of discussions among
relatives and friends. — Photograph: Sharon Kessel.


She said her father was initially proud that he had helped a “famous guy” in New York real estate. But later, her father, a lifelong Democrat who had served in the Navy during World War II, grew tired of Donald Trump as he became a fixture in the tabloid gossip pages and a reality television star, she said. The daughters, both Democrats, say they are not fans of Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump has had a complicated relationship with the military, having quarreled with the likes of Senator John McCain, a prisoner of war during Vietnam; the parents of a slain soldier; and the architect of the Osama bin Laden raid, even while speaking during campaign rallies about his enthusiastic support for veterans and the armed forces. He has also been critical of people who have been less than forthright about their Vietnam records. Earlier this month, he chided Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, over misleading statements he made years ago about his own Vietnam record, calling him “Da Nang Dick” on Twitter (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1071479075699490816).

Dr. Braunstein's daughters said that when he discussed Mr. Trump's medical exemption, he often mentioned Dr. Weinstein, though it was unclear to them what role Dr. Weinstein may have played. He was close to the family, they said, and known as Uncle Manny.

The two men forged a close friendship after meeting in podiatry school in New York, from which they graduated in 1953. Dr. Weinstein was among the oldest students in the class, classmates said, and Dr. Braunstein was remembered for being among the smartest.


(https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/26/us/politics/26trumpfeet4-print/00trumpfeet4-master675.jpg) (https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/26/us/politics/26trumpfeet4-print/00trumpfeet4-superJumbo.jpg)
The yearbook photo of Dr. Manny Weinstein, who may
have also played a role in the medical exemption,
according to Dr. Braunstein’s daughters.


One possible explanation that has been raised over the years, the Braunstein sisters said, is that Dr. Weinstein had a connection to the draft, as some private practitioners did. In fact, multiple doctors would have been involved in the final determination.

Before people were inducted into the service, they underwent a physical exam overseen by military doctors, court records from that era show. Men could bring along documentation of medical concerns from private physicians. That information was presented at their exams and considered by a medical officer. Often, a civilian specialist working with the exam station would be asked to review the case and make a recommendation. A local draft board would finalize the man's classification.


(https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/22/us/politics/00trumpfeet7/merlin_148387962_dc2a6fbe-d81c-462e-91f8-a606f88db675-master768.jpg) (https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/22/us/politics/00trumpfeet7/merlin_148387962_dc2a6fbe-d81c-462e-91f8-a606f88db675-superJumbo.jpg)
Dr. Weinstein rented an apartment from Fred Trump in Brooklyn, moving in the same year that Donald Trump
received the exemption. — Photograph: Dave Sanders/for The New York Times.


Dr. Weinstein practiced podiatry in Brooklyn's Bath Beach neighborhood, maintaining an office near another Trump building, Shore Haven Apartments. In 1968, phone books show, Dr. Weinstein moved into an apartment in Westminster Hall, a Trump-owned building. He lived in that building for many years, and later lived in another owned by the Trumps.

Dr. Weinstein had no children and never married, but some people who knew him were surprised by a possible Trump connection.

When Dr. Weinstein closed his practice in the late 1980s, he referred patients to a nearby podiatrist, Dr. Mark L. Schwartz. When contacted by The New York Times, Dr. Schwartz said he had never heard about a possible connection between Dr. Weinstein and the Trumps.


__________________________________________________________________________

Kitty Bennett and Doris Burke contributed research to this article.

Steve Eder (https://www.nytimes.com/by/steve-eder) is an investigative reporter for The New York Times, where he writes about the federal government under President Trump, as well as his personal businesses. He previously covered the 2016 presidential campaign, authoring in-depth articles about the candidates, from Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders to Jeb Bush and Donald Trump. He joined The N.Y. Times in 2012 in the sports department, where he examined doping in baseball, domestic violence in the N.F.L., and Qatar's ambitions to become an international soccer power. Before joining The Times, he covered hedge funds at The Wall Street Journal, where he later became a national legal correspondent. Earlier, he reported on Wall Street banks for Reuters in the aftermath of the financial crisis. He began his career at The Toledo Blade, where he was part of a reporting team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for uncovering an investment scandal in Ohio state government. He is a Michigan native and graduate of Michigan State University.

• A version of this article appears in The New York Times on Wednesday, December 26, 2018, on Page A1 of the New York print edition with the headline: “A Foot Doctor's ‘Favor’ May Have Helped Trump Avoid Vietnam”.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • Two Years In, Trump Struggles to Master Role of Military Commander (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/16/us/politics/president-trump-military.html) (November 16, 2018)

 • Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-tax-schemes-fred-trump.html) (October 2, 2018)

 • Donald Trump's Draft Deferments: Four for College, One for Bad Feet (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/us/politics/donald-trump-draft-record.html) (August 1, 2016)


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/26/us/politics/trump-vietnam-draft-exemption.html (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/26/us/politics/trump-vietnam-draft-exemption.html)


Title: Re: President “Bone Spurs” aka “gutless coward” (SNIGGER)
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on December 27, 2018, 08:07:59 pm

Whether the Democrats or the Republicans win the next full election in the U.S.A. is of no concern to me. After all, I live in the opposite corner of the Pacific Ocean from the Jesuslanders. What I find entertaining is the prospect of two years of Democrats in Congress poking red-hot needles under Donald J. Trump's fingernails and his explosive reactions to it all.

You wanna hear something really hilarious? Trump has been copping a shitload of stick over the fact that in almost two years of being president, he has NEVER once visited American troops serving overseas in a hot war zone, unlike all of his predecessors. So, finally, Trump flies out on Christmas Day to Iraq to visit American troops in the field on Boxing Day and guess what happens? The Boxing Day print edition of The New York Times comes out with a major investigative article (see the first post in this thread) taking up the entire FRONT PAGE of the newspaper detailing something which has never been public knowlege before: how Donald J. Trump managed to get that “bone spurs” diagnosis which enabled him to finally dodge the draft for good. It was his Daddy who bribed a podiatrist who rented space in one of Daddy's buildings in Queens, New York. Fred Trump looked after the podiatrist in return for that dodgy diagnosis. Plus, Fred Trump also offered favours to another podiatrist who was on the military draft medical review board. Donald J. Trump will be absolutely seething that his trip to visit troops as Commander in Chief has been oevershadowed by The New York Times' investigative piece showing that “Daddy” got Trump out of serving in Vietnam when Trump always likes people to think he has always been his own self-made man with no nelp from anybody else.

I would love to be a fly-on-the-wall of Trump's quarters onboard Air Force One as he flys back from Iraq to Washington D.C. because Trump will be absolutely seething with rage over that New York Times article. He will be stewing on it all the way home and no doubt the highly-entertaining hateful Twitterstorm is about to hit the world, giving the world something else to laugh at Trump over. Donald J. Trump is the idiot & buffoon who keeps on giving perpetually throughout his presidency. It will be interesting to see what historians write about him in decades to come.





(http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/TooFunny_zps2gz4suf2.gif~original) (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/LaughingPinkPanther_zpsy6iu8yso.gif~original) (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/ROFLMAO_Dog_zpsc4esrpyc.gif~original) (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/LaughingHard_zpswco6umsu.gif~original) (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/ItchyBugga_zpsebzrttez.gif~original)



Title: Re: President “Bone Spurs” aka “gutless coward” (SNIGGER)
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on December 30, 2018, 03:59:53 pm

I wouldn't send my kids to war

why don't Bruce go and join ISIS

bitch bitch moan moan you poor unhappy camper


Title: Re: President “Bone Spurs” aka “gutless coward” (SNIGGER)
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on December 30, 2018, 05:18:57 pm

from The New York Times…

The President's Field Trip to the Forever War

“Thank you for your service,” but spare the details, please.

By MATT GALLAGHER | Friday, December 30, 2018

(https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/30/opinion/sunday/30Gallagher/merlin_148512243_7dd6ce56-6c65-4075-8bc6-5f91617e97ed-jumbo.jpg) (https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/30/opinion/sunday/30Gallagher/merlin_148512243_7dd6ce56-6c65-4075-8bc6-5f91617e97ed-superJumbo.jpg)
President Trump and his wife, Melania, with American troops in Iraq this week. — Photograph: Al Drago/for The New York Times.

AS FAR AS incursions into combat go, President Trump's brief trip to Iraq last week is not likely to make any future leadership manuals. “What we had to go through, with the darkened plane, with all windows closed,” he said of his descent (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/26/us/politics/trump-iraq-troops-visit.html) in a dimmed Air Force One to an airstrip at Al Asad Air Base. “I've never seen anything like it.”

That's actually pretty vanilla as these things go, a far cry from corkscrewing into Baghdad International to evade surface-to-air missiles, let alone crossing the Alps on a war elephant. But, after two years as commander in chief and a steady stream of complaints for not having done so, Mr. Trump did visit American troops stationed in a war zone.

It didn't take long for many of the same people who criticized him for never making that presidential pilgrimage to express disdain for how he did it. His Iraq trip came in the wake of his announcement of a troop withdrawal from Syria, and coincided with a report in The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/26/us/politics/trump-vietnam-draft-exemption.html) on how his deferment for bone spurs during the Vietnam War might have come about. Cable news packed itself full with retired generals, foreign policy experts and seasoned journalists who've been to the proving grounds of war and found the president in contempt.

The visit was likened to a campaign rally (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-trumps-iraq-visit-sounded-like-a-campaign-rally). “Cadet Bone Spurs” (https://twitter.com/hashtag/cadetbonespurs) trended on Twitter. Thinkers ranging from Noam Chomsky to Bill Kristol made cases for remaining in Syria in some capacity. Even on Fox News, the morning host Brian Kilmeade said, “Nobody thinks ISIS is defeated,” pushing back against Mr. Trump's initial argument for withdrawal from Syria.

It's true that the president brought a lot of this criticism upon himself. But there's also something perverse about the fierce blowback he received. I've found myself wondering if he's facing this tempest for another reason — because he dared suggest scaling back the reach of the American military-industrial complex.

Mr. Trump has a strange relationship with the military. He loves the parades, the star-spangled pomp and surrounding himself with generals' stars. Until the generals speak, at least. For instance, see the letter of resignation from Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis — and the way it sped up his departure.

The Iraq trip was a prime example of the superficiality of how this president sees the military. The seemingly staged images of Mr. Trump with kitted-up special operators in the Asad chow hall are both exploitative and goofy. And it seemed a bit convenient that so many “Make America Great Again” red hats happened to be at an air base (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/27/us/politics/trump-troops-iraq-germany.html) in the middle of desolate Anbar Province.

Mr. Trump tends to recoil from the messy particulars, like understanding Purple Hearts aren't something to congratulate soldiers for, or reading through complex foreign policy briefings. He channels a vague sense of gratitude for service members — one that neatly mirrors the vague gratitude of many Americans.

This president embodies our republic's earnest yet shallow understanding of military service, all the while acting as a reminder of the limited mass appeal of service itself. Less than one percent of Americans wear the uniform these days. Bone spurs? In 2018, who actually cares, beyond those who had to go to Vietnam in the stead of kids like Donald Trump?

Our country has had ample opportunity to elect a Vietnam veteran as president. It has chosen not to, time and time again. It's not a coincidence our three boomer presidents (Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Mr. Trump) all managed to avoid service in Vietnam. Nor is it coincidence that veterans like John McCain and John Kerry had their service records used against them on the presidential campaign trail. Even Al Gore, who spent a few months in Vietnam as an Army newspaper reporter, got closer to battle than the man who defeated him, Mr. Bush, who spent his service time stateside on Air National Guard bases.


(https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/28/us/politics/28dc-trump1/merlin_148532016_941718a5-24f6-406e-b6e1-5cb9df9c8b84-jumbo.jpg) (https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/28/us/politics/28dc-trump1/merlin_148532016_941718a5-24f6-406e-b6e1-5cb9df9c8b84-superJumbo.jpg)
The political paraphernalia on display during President Trump's visits to Germany, above, and Iraq has raised questions
at the Defense Department about protocol violations. — Photograph: Al Drago/for The New York Times.


In so many ways, Mr. Trump is not a cause of diminishing respect for the military, but a symptom of it. So it is with 21st-century America and war. “Thank you for your service,” but spare the details, please.

Last month, I attended a retirement ceremony at Fort Knox, Kentucky, for the platoon sergeant I served with in Iraq. A photograph of Mr. Trump glowering greets people at the visitors' center there, next to the stern, cool-eyed image of (the soon departing) Secretary Mattis.

We celebrated that evening with my friend's family over dinner and drinks, and talk gradually turned to the world. I asked my friend what changes he'd noticed over his 20-plus years of military service — how different presidents have shaped his career, his multiple combat deployments.

“It's been the same for us for a long time,” he said. “Republicans in charge, Democrats in charge — hasn't really mattered much, to be honest.”

A few years ago, the author and Vietnam veteran Karl Marlantes told me in an interview (https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/forty-years-after-the-fall-vietnam-war-lit-in-2015), “We're not behaving like a republic,” and his words return to me a lot when I read war news. Something is broken in our system if the machineries of war endure all strategies and policy changes, if only for the sake of enduring. There are legitimate reasons, both related to national security and humanitarian interests, to remain in Syria, as one example — our Kurdish allies pre-eminent among them.

But when questions like “How long?” and “How many?” and “What's the objective?” get swallowed up by a defense industry that essentially answers with, “We'll handle it,” it's no wonder that the American citizenry doesn't engage with its military much beyond surprise homecomings at football games.

It's also no wonder that nearly half of Americans believe the war in Afghanistan has “mostly failed,” according to a recent Pew poll (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/05/after-17-years-of-war-in-afghanistan-more-say-u-s-has-failed-than-succeeded-in-achieving-its-goals), despite Secretary Mattis and others continually making the case that staying there will help prevent another September 11. It's no wonder the American citizenry elected a president with an isolationist bent who reflexively distrusts elites and experts. And in Mr. Trump's defense — not a line I thought I'd ever write — it's many of those same elites and experts who got us mired in a war that now costs us $45 billion a year to begin with.

Should we remain in Afghanistan? Should we stay in Syria and Iraq? Both as a combat veteran and a citizen who tries to stay informed of his nation's foreign policy, I can honestly answer only: I don't know. I'm not privy to top-secret briefings, nor do I earn a living by making grand predictions on matters of war and peace.

I do know this, though: The way forward should involve more transparency, not less. Then citizens will be better able to hold our elected officials accountable for the decisions they have our military leaders execute. As it stands now, Americans seem to care so little or are so convinced of the necessity of permanent war that our military is still fighting overseas based on congressional authorization from 2001. That's not good enough, not even close.

The American public has been conditioned to believe that foreign war is necessary, even vital, to maintaining our way of life. Forcing those in power to explain why — beyond easy, histrionic references to September 11 — would go a long way toward moving beyond this forever war. In the meantime, our commander in chief continues to be both baffled by and obsessed with our men and women in uniform. It's crass. It's clownish. It's unbecoming. In 2018, it's also unquestionably American.


__________________________________________________________________________

• Matt Gallagher is an Army veteran of the Iraq war and author of the novel Youngblood: A Novel (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1501105752).

• A version of this article appears in The New York Times on Sunday, December 30, 2018, on Page SR1 of the New York print edition with the headline: “Trump's Field Trip to the Forever War”.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/opinion/sunday/trump-military-troops-iraq.html (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/opinion/sunday/trump-military-troops-iraq.html)


Title: Re: President “Bone Spurs” aka “gutless coward” (SNIGGER)
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on January 08, 2019, 05:36:27 am
Oh dear I think the troops like him lol


Title: Re: President “Bone Spurs” aka “gutless coward” (SNIGGER)
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on January 08, 2019, 10:52:10 am

Poor liddle-widdle Trumpy-wumpy feels inadequate because when his country needed him he displayed his gutless cowardice.

So Trumpy-wumpy tries to compensate for that (and also for his needle-dick) by trying to be the big man.

In reality, all he has achieved is to make both himself and his country the laughing stock of the entire world (apart from a few imbeciles & idiots, one of whom lives in Woodville).


Title: Re: President “Bone Spurs” aka “gutless coward” (SNIGGER)
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on March 22, 2019, 08:06:42 pm

from The Washington Post…

The GOP is silent and spineless as Trump attacks a war hero

No surprises, really.

By JENNIFER RUBIN | 9:15AM EDT — Thursday, March 21, 2019

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_899w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2019/03/21/Editorial-Opinion/Images/QEIA44CLSEI6TDH4FROQTGOCDY.jpg) (https://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2019/03/21/Editorial-Opinion/Images/QEIA44CLSEI6TDH4FROQTGOCDY.jpg)
President Donald J. Trump speaks on Wednesday at a tank factory in Lima, Ohio. — Photograph: Michael Conroy/Associated Press.

MANY media sleuths are trying to get to the bottom of the latest mystery: How could President Trump be so shockingly mean and disrespectful in keeping up a multi-day tirade against dead war hero John McCain? What set him off, and what strategy is behind all this?

Please. This is nothing new and nothing surprising in the least. It is Trump being Trump — lashing out at his moral superiors, trying to goad supporters into disavowing their own values to remain in his good graces, revealing his own pitiful inadequacies. There is no master plan here; this is the continuing deterioration of a mentally, temperamentally and ethically unfit man who sees the walls closing in on him and his political future in grave doubt.


Quote
President Trump on Wednesday escalated his unrelenting attacks on the late senator from Arizona and former GOP presidential nominee John McCain, who even in death has remained one of Trump's top targets for abuse as fellow Republicans have repeatedly begged him to stop.

In a five-minute diatribe during an appearance at a General Dynamics tank factory in Lima, Ohio, Trump argued that McCain, a lifelong Pentagon booster and former prisoner of war in Vietnam, “didn't get the job done” for veterans while also grousing that he did not receive proper gratitude for McCain's funeral last September.

“I gave him the kind of funeral he wanted, which as president I had to approve,” Trump said inaccurately, an apparent reference to allowing the use of military transport to carry McCain's body to Washington. “I don't care about this, I didn't get a thank-you, that's okay. We sent him on the way. But I wasn't a fan of John McCain.”

He also falsely accused McCain of spreading an intelligence dossier around before the election. (He gave it to the FBI after the election.)

How perfectly and entirely pathetic. The man who got multiple deferments to avoid serving his country in Vietnam whimpers about not getting a thank-you (from the dead man's grieving family?!) for doing nothing other than not nixing the customary trappings of a great man's funeral. McCain spent five years getting tortured; Trump whines for lack of a thank-you card? Nothing could better sum up the moral chasm between a great American hero and a shell of a man, one consumed by his endless narcissism.

Trump laughably said he was no “fan” of McCain — a war hero, public servant, human rights icon, devoted father, trusted friend, true wit and friend to fighting men and women and veterans. That's understandable, since the two share nothing in common.

The reaction, or non-reaction of Republicans to Trump's immoral reign of horror, is no surprise either. The party has been kow-towing to Trump for more than two years now. They never censured him for insisting there were some “very fine” people among the neo-Nazi marchers in Charlottesville. They never condemned him for prior attacks on McCain, for racism or for much of anything else. Why should they start now?

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican-Kentucky) praised McCain but didn't mention Trump. A real profile in courage, huh? No, it is the same moral abdication we've seen since Trump took office. Senator Mitt Romney proclaimed himself stumped as to why Trump would attack his friend McCain. (Hint: Trump has no moral core and hates those who do.)

It was left to Senator Johnny Isakson (Republican-Georgia) to condemn Trump. He first told Bulwark: “I just want to lay it on the line, that the country deserves better, the McCain family deserves better, I don't care if he's president of United States, owns all the real estate in New York, or is building the greatest immigration system in the world. Nothing is more important than the integrity of the country and those who fought and risked their lives for all of us.”

He then followed with an appearance on Georgia Public Radio. “We have young men and women qualified to do anything in the world that, on their own, volunteer and serve this country … they're fighting battles in lands far away,” Isakson said. "They're fighting for everything we believe in and everything we love in this country. … When it comes to it, as chairman of the Veterans Committee, I'm going to stand up for veterans.”

As with the vote on Trump's fake emergency declaration, when a mere 12 Senate Republicans broke with Trump, the number of those willing to confront Trump over something as egregiously wrong as trashing a dead hero says more about the state of the party than it does about Trump. Trump, we know, is a louse. We have been reminded in the past few weeks just how spineless and soulless is his party.


__________________________________________________________________________

Jennifer Rubin (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/jennifer-rubin) writes reported opinion from a center-right perspective for The Washington Post. She covers a range of domestic and foreign policy issues and provides insight into the conservative movement, the Republican Party and threats to Western democracies. Rubin, who is also an MSNBC contributor, came to The Post after three years with Commentary magazine. Prior to her career in journalism, Rubin practiced labor law for two decades, an experience that informs and enriches her work. She is a mother of two sons and lives in Northern Virginia.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/03/21/dont-act-so-surprised-when-trump-acts-like-trump (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/03/21/dont-act-so-surprised-when-trump-acts-like-trump)


Title: Re: President “Bone Spurs” aka “gutless coward” (SNIGGER)
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on March 22, 2019, 09:56:32 pm
the others that were with mcstain said he was no hero the others called him the songbird then there all that stuff where mcstain was arming isis that made him a traitor working for the enemy

try doing some real research and not a made up story from washington lefty dog piss


Title: Re: President “Bone Spurs” aka “gutless coward” (SNIGGER)
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on March 23, 2019, 11:49:33 am

McCain served his country.

Donald J. Trump is a gutless, cowardly draft-dodger.

Kinda says it all.


Title: Re: President “Bone Spurs” aka “gutless coward” (SNIGGER)
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on March 23, 2019, 12:22:39 pm
he's a late starter

serving his country now much better  than he ever could as a kid

and wow he could blow up the whole planet

now that's real power



Title: Re: President “Bone Spurs” aka “gutless coward” (SNIGGER)
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on March 23, 2019, 12:59:04 pm
make love not war


Title: Re: President “Bone Spurs” aka “gutless coward” (SNIGGER)
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on March 23, 2019, 10:10:44 pm
haha


https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=207&v=0qpOHMwBj84


Title: Re: President “Bone Spurs” aka “gutless coward” (SNIGGER)
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on March 24, 2019, 05:48:53 am

Donald J. Trump is a cowardly draft-dodger.


Title: Re: President “Bone Spurs” aka “gutless coward” (SNIGGER)
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on March 24, 2019, 06:43:09 am
only war you went to is in the morning when you get up and take a shit

but it's not too late you can fly to another land still plenty of wars

meanwhile, this will cause some global warming

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE5K5FibSxk


Title: Re: President “Bone Spurs” aka “gutless coward” (SNIGGER)
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on March 24, 2019, 03:59:21 pm

Donald J. Trump is a gutless wonder who is a draft-dodger.

Yet he is a military wannabe who wishes he had a purple heart.

The only problem is that you have to be a brave serviceman to earn a purple heart.

Trump's spinless yellow-belly tendencies means he will never, ever qualify.


Title: Re: President “Bone Spurs” aka “gutless coward” (SNIGGER)
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on March 25, 2019, 12:00:09 am
and you are an expert on nothing

so now you support the US killing millions of your communist brothers in V-Nam

you deserve a purple heart for being a hero on the railway and being a union man

oh that's right your perfect and its everyone else who is wrong not you