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Third rail for Mr. Trump? Dissing the military. Bad move, Bro.

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Northwest · M
I don't know if this matters. He's on the record, making fun of Vietnam vets, and attacking our POWs, because "they got caught". All the while, he was bragging about his sexual exploits at the time.

Yet, the military, in large numbers voted for him.
SW-User
@Northwest I wonder if this might be different because he is abusing troops, too, by sending them to the border for a political stunt.

"President Donald Trump’s approval rating among active-duty military personnel has slipped over the last two years, leaving today’s troops evenly split over whether they’re happy with the commander in chief’s job performance, according to the results of a new Military Times poll of active-duty service members.

About 44 percent of troops had a favorable view of Trump’s presidency, the poll showed, compared to 43 percent who disapproved.

The results from the survey, conducted over the course of September and October, suggest a gradual decline in troops’ support of Trump since he was elected in fall 2016, when a similar Military Times poll showed that 46 percent of troops approved of Trump compared to 37 percent who disapproved. That nine-point margin of support now appears gone."
Yeah, your comment matters because you raise some interesting points. I live not too far from where he spends time in NJ. There's a VA hospital mere miles from his NJ residence. I don't think he's paid a visit there yet, for all his talk about Veterans. He is in one respect on the same level as his predecessor, neither of them having served in our military, ergo, no empathy. The adage "walk a mile in my shoes" applies here.@Northwest
Northwest · M
@soar2newhighs I don't think one needs to serve in the military, to empathize. President Obama, visited the troops once in Iraq, a couple of months after his inauguration, and the troops in Afghanistan, a total of 8 times, during his time in office.

President Obama, made monthly visits to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, to visit with wounded soldiers. These visits were not made public until the end of his time in office. He was also at Dover, to greet the bodies of arriving US soldiers and DEA agents.

He also spent quite a bit of time, with the families of fallen soldiers. He slashed the number of troops in harm's way, from 150,000 to 14,000 and stopped the flow of body bags.

Trump, though having promised to stop sending US troops overseas, has been slowly escalating our involvement in several hot zones, and has been promising to send troops, if the concerned countries would fit the bill. He's putting a price on our dead soldiers heads.

Obama's lack of military service, is not surprising. He grew up during a period, when we were not involved in war. I expect this to change, as more of the Iraq/Afghanistan war, enter politics, and seek higher office.

Trump has not been to any of the hot zones once, and other than publicity stunts, he does not make an effort, to take away from his Golfing time, to visit military hospitals.
Obama was born in '61, a few years later as he grew up, we were involved in Viet Nam. I think a person who has served in the military as opposed to a person who has not, has better ability to realize where his/her fellow veterans have been and where they're coming from with respect to their service to this nation.@Northwest
Northwest · M
@soar2newhighs We actually got involved, before he was born, but we only had "advisors" there. By the time we went into major action, he was 4 years old. Hardly old enough to understand what's happening, never mind serving.

My point, is that generation, was not exposed to the US in a sustained combat role. People served because they wanted to, absent the adrenaline rush to serve (9/11, etc.).

Those who have not served in combat, many not know what it means to be under fire, and to some extent, of course they will never be able to personally feel the fear, anxiety, worry and pain, but you don't need to be shot in the stomach, to empathize with someone who has, in your stead.

Of course, the brotherhood, soldiers develop, cannot be experienced by a civilian, but that's not the same as being empathic to those who serve.

Every action President Obama took, including the efforts he undertook, to bring them home, tells me that he cares.

Trump's idea of caring, is to give them more conflicts to fight in. If a veteran gets excited about a new conflict, like some of the SW posters, then they should join private contractors. True to heart US veterans, see it a duty to defend our nation, and not an opportunity to get an adrenaline rush.

My opinion, not necessarily shared by everyone else. Reminder that Neo-Nazis are overrepresented, as a single group, in the military, something that should disgust other veterans.