Our troops need more than a damn parade!

by | Feb 11, 2018 | Features, Politics | 7 comments

“I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.” William Tecumseh Sherman

Sherman is correct, war is indeed hell; and no amount of yellow ribbons, bumper stickers claiming unwavering support for our soldiers, or parade can mitigate that fact.

But according to the Washington Post, President Donald Trump wants a parade like the one he saw in Paris, while attending the Bastille Day procession. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stated that the president “asked the Department of Defense to explore a celebration at which all Americans can show their appreciation.”

In the post Vietnam era, war policy has become a linear sophomoric proposition, whereby any criticism of the policy consumes every aspect of the enterprise, including a critique of American soldiers.

There are roughly 16 million books in the Library of Congress. Yet, one would be hard pressed to locate the volume authored by Congress in the aftermath of Vietnam entitled, “Lesson Learned.”

Based on America’s post Vietnam behavior the only takeaways have been to prohibit the press from taking photos or filming the fallen soldiers who return by way of Dover Air Force Base, and to conflate the mission with supporting the troops.

This latter distinction reflects the cowardly political application to hide behind the valor of soldiers to mute criticism.

Can anyone imagine former President Dwight Eisenhower calling for a military parade? Perhaps Ike’s intimacy with war naturally places him closer to Sherman’s thinking.

The president has created several narratives, leaving one to conclude any support for our armed forces is at best happenstance. With his self-serving characteristics well documented, there is little the president does that is not about him.

The legitimacy of his reason, notwithstanding, the president did not serve when others in his age range did so, including Senator John McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war at the “Hanoi Hilton.”

When contrition might have been the order of day, the president infamously said in 2015 of McCain, “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

Lest we forget, candidate Trump lashed out at the family of Capt. Humayun Khan, who died in Iraq serving in the U.S. Army. The utter disrespect for a Gold Star family is gobsmacking.

Such episodes make it difficult to believe the president’s desires for a military parade, reminiscent of Josef Stalin, goes beyond his unquenchable thirst for self-aggrandizement.

It’s one thing for the country to show its appreciation for our armed forces, which I believe the nation makes a laudable effort. But it’s another to demonstrate support. Here, America could use some tweaking.

America loses on average 20 veterans daily to suicide. According to the Military Suicide Research Consortium, mental-health rates have risen 65 percent in the military since 2000. Because of issues ranging from PTSD and depression to readjustment challenges and sleeping problems, veterans are twice as like as the civilian population of committing suicide, according to a 2013 Los Angeles Times report.

Over 57,000 veterans are homeless on any given night according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Unemployment is much higher among post-9/11 veterans than the general population, according to the Department of Labor. More than 1.4 million veterans are living below the poverty line according to a U.S. Senate report, and another 1.4 million are just above the line.

These tragic statistics are obviously not the president’s fault, but it ought to be his concern. A parade to exhibit America’s military might that everyone already knows exists reflects the empty calories of immediate gratification. Moreover, such festivities are beneath the dignity of the world’s lone super power.

In lieu of a parade, why not challenge every American and corporation that receive a tax refund this year, to contribute 10 percent to veteran causes? War may be hell, but too many veterans continue to realize it after their service is complete.

In the midst of our cheers and steadfast support, veterans continue to fall through the cracks. If the president could focus the nation’s attention on reducing the number of veterans that commit suicide, are homeless, or have simply given up, not only would it expand our definition of supporting American troops, it would truly be something worthy of celebration.

7 Comments

  1. TY THOMPSON

    “Lest we forget, candidate Trump lashed out at the family of Capt. Humayun Khan, who died in Iraq serving in the U.S. Army. The utter disrespect for a Gold Star family is gobsmacking.”

    Not so much. They willingly put themselves in the political line of fire by going after Trump first…on stage, at a Clinton rally. Lets add that bit of context to avoid lying by omission.

    ” the president did not serve when others in his age range did so”

    Very true but do we really want to go there? After all, there’s the brilliant military record of Trump’s immediate predecessor who never served and routinely dissed the military with his “latte” salutes, used Marines as umbrella-holding domestic servants which violates military regulations, let the VA scandal build for years on his watch, suppressed the military absentee ballot vote, imposed ridiculous and lethal rules of engagement on troops in theater, etc.

    • Byron Williams

      Interesting observation, you wrote:

      “Very true but do we really want to go there? After all, there’s the brilliant military record of Trump’s immediate predecessor who never served and routinely dissed the military with his “latte” salutes, used Marines as umbrella-holding domestic servants which violates military regulations, let the VA scandal build for years on his watch, suppressed the military absentee ballot vote, imposed ridiculous and lethal rules of engagement on troops in theater, etc”.

      You do realize serving was not the issue that you conveniently pulled out, but that the president did not serve, but found the time to criticize Senator McCain. I agree lets’ add a bit of context to avoid lying by omission.

      • TY THOMPSON

        Perhaps so, but TM’s wording suggests that he is levying a criticism of Trump to the effect that he did not serve. Perhaps I misinterpreted the reason why he phrased it that way.

    • Norma Munn

      Mr. Thompson: The President is Commander in Chief. According to the Marine Commander at the time of the “umbrella” incident, any President may request or order a Marine to hold an umbrella. What you omitted is that the rain started as Pres. Obama was holding a hold a joint press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, May 16, 2013 and that Pres. Obama pointed out that he could get another suit quickly, but he was not sure his guest could when asking for umbrellas. Would you have rather that the head of another country was allowed to stand in the rain? The headlines then would have been all about Pres. Obama dissing the Turkish Prime Minister.

      As for suppressing the military vote, the situation as you have described it is misleading. Ohio’s Republican-controlled legislature passed a series of voting laws in 2011, returning the deadline for most residents to return their absentee ballots back to the preceding Friday before the election. But the legislation contained conflicting deadlines for military personnel and their families, who benefit from the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voter Act.

      Ohio’s secretary of state resolved the matter by clarifying that the previous deadline (Monday) would still apply to service members. The Democrats sued, saying that this decision created “disparate treatment” of voters was unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. In other words, the Democrats wanted everyone to have the 3 additional days to return their absentee ballots, not just the military. You may see that as an attempt to suppress the military vote, but an ordinary voter who needed to file an absentee ballot would probably see it as an attempt to have his/her vote count just as much as the military vote. I fail to see how that is an act of suppression.

      Different views about the effectiveness of Pres. Obama will not be resolved here, nor even by historians in the next few years, but it is not helpful to civil discourse to mis-construe factual information. However, I doubt history will accuse Pres. Obama of refusing to “serve” since we no longer had a draft when he was eligible to serve as we did when Trump was of an age to be drafted. We were also not engaged in the Vietnam War, nor any other military situation of that size and scope.

  2. David Scott

    As a Vietnam veteran, this captures my feelings. Instead of some two-bit parade, we need PEACE and SUPPORT for those veterans who have fallen through the cracks. To do less is shameful and unpatriotic.

    • Norma Munn

      Amen.

      • The Ghost of Elections Past

        Conflating the policies that led to the Viet Nam conflict with support of the military and veterans is why we were heckled and spat upon! I hope that our armed forces will resist pressure to support the policies of any administration who happens to be in power during any war. So far, most Americans appear to be observing the distinction.

        Considering the way we veterans were treated during/after VN, it gives me a strange feeling whenever some thanks me for my service.

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