George Roof is a resident of Magnolia.
I suppose I’ve reached the nadir of reality when I have a Kent County Levy Court commissioner with Trump derangement syndrome openly attack me on the pages of the Daily State News (“The truth about Trump’s military record”). I must credit George “Jody” Sweeney for hitting all the Democrat buzzwords in his Opinion, however, as words like “gaslighting” and “fascist” seldom get played otherwise.
I’m not familiar with Mr. Sweeney’s military service, but, as a retired “lifer,” I’ve openly stated that the U.S. military, the Department of Defense and, more specifically, the Pentagon are currently filled with the most inept, woke, indoctrinated general officer corps ever to have worn a uniform. My lamentations come from Mr. Donald Trump assuming that those ranks were the classic lines of military men he’d grown up with. Sadly, instead of patriots like Norman Schwarzkopf and Buster Glosson, he got the indoctrinated Mark Milley and John Kelly. When the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff announces that he shouldn’t have worn his uniform when accompanying the president, who is his commander in chief; when he launches a militarywide investigation of racism within the ranks; and when he shuts down the entire U.S. military for a “day of reflection,” there were immediate grounds for dismissal and for a Section 32 investigation before a court-martial. Instead, he became a savior of Trump derangement syndrome Democrats.
Mr. Sweeney has either never served or has forgotten the single most important weapon in military effectiveness: morale of the troops. Donald Trump built that morale. Launching missiles into Syria gave the military men and women the trust that their leader wasn’t moving a “line in the sand” and that his word was to be taken seriously. He wasn’t threatened by radical groups when the promises of four previous presidents had failed to move the consulate to the city chosen by Israel as its capital. Having a president whose dominant world position led to four years without a single new military conflict will make any military person proud. I would also remind him that, until President Trump took office, military veterans and retirees needing medical assistance were limited to specific facilities or faced voluminous paperwork to avoid out-of-pocket expenses. And, sadly, there’s the abandonment of American troops in Afghanistan and disregard of Trump’s plan of exit by President Joe Biden, which cost the lives of 13 service members at Abbey Gate. Those are really big issues for us.
I’m sickened to hear about Donald Trump’s military deferments. I’ve never heard a single Democrat comment on Bill Clinton’s desertion and defection to Canada and Russia before Jimmy Carter issued a blanket pardon for Vietnam service avoidance. I’ve yet to see an explanation of Joe Biden’s five deferments (four were in college, as was Trump’s, and his fifth was supposed asthma as a youth, while Trump’s was a foot bone spur). No one dares mention the Biden appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy that he abandoned, leaving Delaware without a nominee for four successive years. Did that “asthma” affect being a lifeguard or football player?
So, Mr. Sweeney, I don’t like word games, and I don’t play them. If speaking factually is gaslighting to you, I suggest you get a new word. And any American calling a past president a “fascist” simply shows the lack of education to know where the word came from and the people who pushed it. Slandering anyone with such a title is reprehensible unless you have something more than your party platform and agenda.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
