See also this thread in GD:
https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-are-suckers/919871
I grew up near a military town, so I guess that’s why I don’t remember a time when we didn’t worship the military. Can’t remember a time when talking shit about troops wouldn’t have led to some dirty looks and, depending on the person being offended, spitting out some chiclets. Lots of “I’d fly 10,000 miles to smoke a camel” tee shirts and bumper stickers, as I recall in 1990-91.
Looking at it that way, yes, they’re suckers. But those concerns aside, the reality is that every country needs a military and some program of national defense. Besides that, it’s an employer and it offers benefits in exchange for service. I don’t think people signed up knowing or suspecting they’d be conned; they signed up hoping they could help this country live up to at least some of its ideals.
I know people who dropped their careers after 9/11 because they wanted to go after terrorists in their own backyards, and you know what? That did happen. Not just American troops, but Canadian troops, British troops, Australian, South Korean, and troops from a host of other countries.
Why rush to post in a thread that’s logically equivalent to “Two plus two equals four”?
This cannot possibly surprise anyone. Of course he thinks soldiers are fools.
For some kid from the ghetto or the opiate-soaked hills of West Virginia who worked hard in high school but doesn’t have the cash to go to college, the military can be a damn profitable path to a better life. It pays better than Taco Bell, looks good on a resume, and the GI Bill is worth a fortune in free tuition. Trump just can’t put himself in a shoes of a person who doesn’t have millions handed to him by his father.
The military represents a very good cross section of the working class in this country. The military is a conservative institution, and it is probably inclined to support the center right and, at times, even the hard right (though not fringe right) in this country. His decline in popularity with the military says a lot. At least some people are beginning to figure out that he’s a fraud.
Pat Tilman gave up an NFL career to be enlisted in the Army after 9/11. I’m sure others gave up careers too after 9/11.
I was wondering how the right media would report this. The National Review basically says Trump supporters don’t believe everything he says, just as Biden supporters overlook his gaffes. Not really the issue.
That said, Trump seems like a bad tempered guy always spouting off. There are probably times he does not feel that way and times when he respects the military. But it’s still likely beyond what other presidents expressed.
He has never respected the military – that’s why he joked about venereal disease being his Viet Nam, and said he likes soldiers who don’t get shot down or whatever he said about McCain. He also lies to them about stuff Obama did for veterans when he tries to take credit for it. If you lie to someone about something so easily verified, it’s a sign of disrespect.
He also doesn’t respect the flag – he humps it instead, but somehow people who think it was bad to kneel during the anthem thinks it’s OK to hump the flag.
He doesn’t respect anything or anyone other than himself and 1 or 2 of his kids.
Foreign dictators?
I am saddened to see the Republican Party become a personality cult. They really need to return to their intellectual roots. I am saddened by many of Trump’s views and the momentum he seems to offer to those who share them. I am saddened there seem to be many who do, and I can’t fully understand this. I hope Canadian conservatives remain more sensible.
Atlantic editor: We’ve only just begun…
I vehemently disagree with the idea those who served were suckers.
First, there’s a little thing called the draft. You either served, or you faced the consequences, none of which were easy or pleasant.
Second, while there have been, as has been pointed out, people who’ve enlisted to participate in what they saw as a just war, there have also been a lot of people who were already in the military. They signed on, as has been noted, to provide for the common defense.
Third, of those who did enlist to serve because of a war, they weren’t suckered. To be suckered means to be easily deceived, not to fight for a cause that was not unanimously supported or that later turned out to be unjust or unlikely.
I’ve been opposed to many military actions during my lifetime, often strongly so, but I never thought those who disagreed with me were suckers. That view takes a lot of arrogant ignorance.
I believe it when Trump says he loves the military. Of course he does. As President, he loves that he can order “the military” to defend the border against the “illegals”, and fly jets over his campaign rallies, and that “the military” salutes him every time he flies somewhere. It’s one of his prize properties, like Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago. But like the housecleaners and busboys at Mar-a-Lago, he has nothing but contempt for the losers actually working in “the military”.
The most difficult part of that to grok is the notion that the subject ever came up.
Donald Trump has probably been trash-talking the military his whole life and Jr. was probably raised hearing this. So Jr. probably threw a tantrum at some time and tried to think of the one thing he could do that would piss daddy off to no end. “Oh yeah, well I’m gonna JOIN THE MILITARY!” Cue Trump having legal documents drawn up the next day to disinherit his son.
The only circumstance under which I can imagine Don Jr. bringing up joining the military is to give the family a good belly laugh as they bitched about how breaking news about some dumb dead soldiers was preempting that night’s Celebrity Apprentice.
His main problem with joining the military is that he couldn’t go hunting because the target isn’t tied down and it shoots back.
Stolen.
That’s not how “respect” works. You respect someone or you don’t.
You might from time to time, out of frustration or anger or whatever, do or say something disrespectful to someone you really do respect. We are all human. Repeately referring to soldiers as suckers and losers, and questioning their motivation, demonstrates that he does not respect them.
Trump respects no one. To Trump, everyone in the world is either stronger than him and is to be sucked up to, or weaker, and is to be used and spat upon.
Trump says Pentagon chiefs are accommodating weapons makers
Wow, the old military-industrial complex. Haven’t heard much about that one in a while.
I could have sworn that this is the guy who has been bragging incessantly about how he supposedly completely rebuilt a “depleted” military, and (also supposedly) asked “his generals” how come the US didn’t use its nuclear weapons. Evidently, I misheard.