10-09-2017, 06:54 PM
(10-09-2017, 06:05 PM)Dill Wrote: Never stopped me before. I'll take a stab at it.
I think it is pretty clear that military members who let themselves get captured are weak "losers." Strong, competent fighters do not do that.
Trump is making the US a nation of winners, so what place POWs could have in a successful America? They are not a model for success. Trump was right to call out McCain. Do you want your kids looking up to a guy who spent years relaxing in the Hanoi Hilton while the rest of his unit was fighting the war? He's just hanging there with his arms strapadoed while the other pilots do the work. If you really think about it, maybe the US should take this a step further and dock McCain's salary to pay for the plane he lost too.
Combat veterans may have a different view of this. They may want to honor anyone who puts his body on the line for the US. You don't get captured if you don't serve, if you are not in harm's way. They may have friends who were captured and tortured, too. So they are all emotional and biased in favor of their buddies. And they may see standing for the flag as respect for all who have sacrificed for the US, especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Anyway, that is why we need a leader who has never been in combat or in the military, someone with the strength to see past all the feelings and emotion about lost comrades. Someone who could look a returning POW in the eye and say, "You didn't get the job done. You're fired!" while stoking the nationalist spirit which drives modern wars to keep their comrades' support.
So in conclusion, if you can sound sufficiently nationalist while scapegoating others' exercising their free speech regarding a basic civil rights issue, you not only get around being disrespectful to POWs but get massive numbers of veterans on your side and maybe encourage them to delegitimize or even oppose the civil rights issue.
No Democrat could get away with this so you might give Trump credit for pulling it off.
Dill, in Trump's defense he always felt like he was in the military because his daddy sent him to a military boarding school during high school despite all the subsequent draft deferments to specifically keep his ass out of the military. Probably where he learned as much as the Generals. He unequivocally stated that's where he received the same training as the service members actually going to Vietnam.
