Update:
Read here how a small, “scrappy” veterans organization that could badly use some of the money Trump raised during his “veterans event” is resisting, on a point of principle, being used as a political prop because of the manner in which the money would be presented to the charity.
Liberty House is a small veterans organization in New Hampshire that for more than a decade has been providing housing, food and clothing to needy veterans.
Original Post:
When Donald Trump skipped the Republican debate in Iowa last week to hold a “veterans’ event,” this veteran was skeptical, even offended, for many reasons as outlined here.
But I was not the only one. Numerous veterans and veterans’ organizations expressed similar disdain.
Today, I read a critique from another veteran but written not only much more eloquently but also more probingly and objectively.
David Abrams, a 20-year Army veteran, in “Veterans, Patriots and Pawns,” strongly criticizes Donald Trump’s cynicism in using our veterans “to elevate his own political standing,” as props in the “type of circus we’ve come to expect from the former reality TV star turned politician.”
Referring to Trump’s circus act in Iowa, Abrams says, “Thankfully, the candidate stopped short of ringleading a few acts under his big top — no Marines on the overhead trapeze, Navy SEALs balancing balls on their noses or Special Forces walking the tightrope,” and adds, “The circus had nothing to do with those who serve this country; we know that he was sticking it to Fox News and the ‘mean’ moderator Megyn Kelly.”
Yes, Trump raised money for veterans: $6 million. However, as has been pointed out by several sources, over the years Trump has given veterans “little more than peanuts.” Between 2009 and 2013 the Donald J. Trump foundation donated a measly $57,000 to organizations that directly benefit military veterans or their families.
Abrams also points such out and adds:
Though some veterans organizations have said they’ll take the money raised at the event, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a group that represents about 150,000 veterans, has said no thanks. The I.A.V.A.’s founder, Paul Rieckhoff, tweeted: “We need strong policies from candidates, not to be used for political stunts.” Mr. Rieckhoff was right to refuse the candidate’s cash, and put some distance between veterans and Mr. Trump.
I mentioned that the Abrams piece is also probing and objective.
I say so because Abrams correctly points out that politicians from all stripes have used our warriors “as photo ops and speech fodder ever since Abraham Lincoln posed with his generals for Mathew Brady at Antietam.”
Trump “didn’t invent this particular brand of hypocrisy” Abrams says, “he just employed it a bit more flagrantly.”
Abrams shares my personal and specific disgust for Trump’s shenanigans at the expense of veterans because Trump avoided military service during the Vietnam War; because of the previously mentioned long-standing lack of interest in and respect for veterans (“’homeless veterans’ were ruining his property values”) and, more recently, because of Trump’s disgraceful calumny about John McCain’s capture and imprisonment during the Vietnam War.
Yes, others have done it, too, and will probably continue to use our warriors and veterans as props for their political — or commercial — calculations.
But that doesn’t make it any less offensive or something our warriors should get used to.
Abrams:
As someone who spent 20 years in the active-duty Army, I should be used to strangers bending and twisting my service to suit their needs. But I’m not. I’ve been out of uniform for nearly a decade, and I still break out in a rash when I see service members used, misused and abused for commercial or political gain.
While most veterans don’t want to be “lionized for any purpose,” Abrams says, all too often our military find themselves “serving as the flavor of the month (November), and the poster children or circus performers at political rallies like Mr. Trump’s.”
But, quoting from Ben Fountain’s novel, “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” Abrams says that perhaps we should not be surprised: “What is a soldier’s job but to be the pawn of higher? Wear this, say that, go there, shoot them, then of course there’s the final and ultimate, be killed.”
However, Abrams concludes:
What a shame, then, that those who make it home alive sometimes find themselves fighting a new battle: to be seen as more than a prop on the American political stage.
CODA:
When Trump last July mocked Senator John McCain’s Vietnam War service (“he was a war hero because he was captured…I like people who weren’t captured”), the Senator did not respond in kind, as he could have.
But that calumny offended most Americans, Republicans and Democrats, and it may have come back to haunt Trump in the upcoming New Hampshire primary.
The Hill reports “McCain has long and deep ties to New Hampshire, where he took a surprise victory in the 2000 presidential primary race against George W. Bush, and then won again in 2008.”
Katie Parker, the leader of Our Principles PAC — a very anti-Trump PAC — says, “John McCain is very highly regarded by [New Hampshire] Republican primary voters, largely because he’s considered to be a war hero.”
Well, the PAC plans to remind New Hampshire voters “about the disgraceful things that [Trump] said about John McCain” and is preparing a McCain-focused attack ad, mail pieces and a newspaper advertisement running Sunday, according to Parker.
From the bottom of a veteran’s heart, thank you and best of luck, Ms. Parker.
Lead photo: www.shutterstock.com
