What's Tony Thinking

I Don’t Get It

Yesterday Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke about the three U.S. soldiers who were killed in an Iran-sponsored attack in Jordan. Here’s what he had to say, as cited in the newsletter from historian Heather Cox Richardson.

“At a press conference today with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Washington, D.C., Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke of the three lost soldiers, the many wounded, and their family and friends. ‘Every day we have our men and women in uniform around the world who are putting their lives on the line for our security, for our freedom,’ he said. ‘I am as always humbled by their courage and their sacrifice.’”

Blinken’s words were decent and right, and I am quite sure he was sincere in what he said.

Contrast this with what then President Trump said about those who serve in the military according to Gen. John Kelly (ret.) who served as Trump’s Chief of Staff in the White House.

Kelly described Trump as . . .

“A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.

“A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women,” Kelly continued. “A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason – in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.

“There is nothing more that can be said,” Kelly concluded. “God help us.”

Trump again disparaged John McCain for his service in the run-up to the New Hampshire Primary last week. The CNN article that quoted Kelly, above, also added the following:

“Those details also include Trump’s inability to understand why the American public respects former prisoners of war and those shot down in combat. Then-candidate Trump of course said in front of a crowd in 2015 that former Vietnam POW Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, was ‘not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.’ But behind closed doors, sources told Goldberg, this lack of understanding went on to cause Trump to repeatedly call McCain a “loser” and to refer to former President George H. W. Bush, who was also shot down as a Navy pilot in World War II, as a ‘loser.’”

What don’t I get? How anyone can think Trump — or anyone who says such things or holds such views — is fit to return to office as President and Commander-in-Chief. I mean I really don’t get it.