China is preparing to make some bold moves, but meanwhile….
There was another big kerfuffle in the liberal media about some altercation between a Trump aide and an Arlington National Cemetery official during a wreath laying ceremony. Former President Trump attended, at the request of some Gold Star families, whose loved ones died during the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle three years ago.
Naturally, within hours the liberal media account turned out to be missing a lot of details and was presented to make Trump the villain. I condemn Trump’s bizarre comment recently comparing the Medal of Honor award to Presidential Medal of Freedom awards and saying the medal of freedom was better, while sucking up to some wealthy donor lady, Miriam Adelson, who had introduced him (he had awarded her the medal of freedom as president). He was at this event to speak about anti-Semitism. Here’s what he said:
““It’s the equivalent of the congressional Medal of Honor,” Trump said of the civilian Medal of Freedom. “But the civilian version, it’s actually much better because everyone that gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead.”” from https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2024/08/20/trump-clarifies-medal-of-honor-comments-calls-it-the-ultimate-honor/
Trump later clarified his remarks, but it was totally self-inflicted damage and I watched the video of this lady introducing him and his gushing comments several times. His comment deserved criticism.
For me, the truth matters more than partisan politics, so the truth is the liberal media acts as just part of the Democratic Party and left-wing political organizations messaging operations. And destroying Trump has been their #1 mission since 2016. The truth also is Trump dodged the draft in Vietnam and has no understanding of military service and sacrifice. I still think he’s a liberal role-playing at being a Republican. So, our choices are the most radical left candidate ever or Trump, a mixed bag of foibles, who often landed on good policies while president. He’s not Hitler, but he’s a deeply flawed candidate whose ego and big mouth gives his adversaries endless piles of ammunition to attack him.
Naturally, trying to get past his careless remarks from weeks ago, attending this ceremony at Arlington was politically beneficial, but Trump had called these families before and that might be why they invited him.
Trump was invited by these Gold Star families to attend this ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, that’s the most important point.
Neither President Biden nor Vice President Kamala Harris have ever contacted the families of the fallen heroes at Abbey Gate, during that Afghanistan withdrawal debacle.
Stories never end with a simple explanation. Now we find out that officials at Arlington gave these Gold Star families a runaround trying to arrange this ceremony and Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, had to intervene. From the Daily Caller, EXCLUSIVE: Gold Star Families Had Trouble Getting Trump Into Arlington Until House Speaker Intervened :
“Speaker of the House Mike Johnson had to intervene to get former President Donald Trump into Arlington National Cemetery for the third anniversary of the Afghanistan withdrawal with Gold Star families, a family told the Daily Caller.”
“The Gold Star families, who lost their children during the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, invited Trump to Arlington National Cemetery. There he laid a wreath for the 13 servicemembers who were killed serving their country in Afghanistan. However, a Gold Star family told the Caller that Arlington National Cemetery was trying to make it difficult for the former President to appear for the ceremony to honor their children, something the families requested.”
Every part of the federal government appears to be politicized and deeply divided along partisan lines, including some officials at Arlington National Cemetery, who tried to impede Trump attending a wreath-laying ceremony at the request of some Gold Star families.
During the 20 years of having US troops fighting the Global War On Terror and US regime change/democracy in the ME effort, both political parties began actively recruiting former military members, who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan, to run for office. We now have deeply partisan “former-military” members in Congress, who jump into the fray on all military and foreign policy matters. This active political party recruitment of former military is how Tim Walz made it to Congress. With Walz becoming the Democrat VP candidate, information emerged recently that he had lied about serving in combat. True to form, former military Dems in Congress signed a letter backing Walz, while former military Repubs in Congress signed a letter condemning Walz for lying about his service.
The retired generals who show up in the media to comment, likewise are split along partisan lines, although the Dem-aligned ones became outspoken, rabid Trump-haters. However, among these retired Dem generals, who penned angry op-ed letters about Trump and showed up on cable news to berate him, I never saw any of them speak out about the Biden administration’s disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal debacle. The Pentagon claimed that withdrawal was a success, touting the large number of people evacuated during that debacle. I didn’t see these Dem retired generals criticize Biden or Harris for failing to contact these Gold Star families or even acknowledge them on the three year anniversary. Likewise, The liberal media doesn’t have anything to say about that Biden-Harris disgrace.
So, stepping back now to look at the big picture – we have a deeply divided country, including our news media we rely on for information, our elected officials, our intel agencies, our courts, our military leadership and even it appears, officials at Arlington National Cemetery.
Every federal institution seems to be deeply divided along partisan lines. And many American families are split along partisan lines.
How on earth are we going to be prepared, because our enemies see our divides and are watching? The Biden-Harris train wreck of a foreign policy continues to create opportunities our adversaries will surely try to exploit. Biden’s on an extended vacation and yesterday the media showed video of him lounging at the beach. Kamala’s preparing for her big “first interview” since becoming the official Democrat presidential candidate and she’s campaigning in GA. Here she is yesterday talking about leadership:
Our enemies are watching this vapid, silly woman and they’re watching all the American political theater. Most of all they’re watching the chaos and Biden dismantling of US military might by turning our military into a DEI project for Woke radicals to tinker with.
The floating pier project that Biden deployed to assist in humanitarian relief in Gaza a few months ago ended in failure and embarrassment, but the Pentagon spokeswoman touted that as a success, just like the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle.
In the meantime this was in the news, as China is escalating aggressive actions in the Indo-Pacific
U.S. military has no carriers in Indo-Pacific waters for first time in decades
From that linked article:
But retired Navy Capt. Jim Fanell, former director of intelligence for the Pacific Fleet, said the absence of a carrier group in the region is dangerous, noting it is the first time it has occurred since 2001, when the Japan-based USS Kitty Hawk was deployed to the Persian Gulf.
Since then both Democratic and Republican administrations have maintained at least one carrier strike group in the western Pacific to provide a strong deterrence to aggressive Chinese military activities or for a possible North Korean contingency, he said.
The current gap “sends a clear and unambiguous message to Beijing that the Biden-Harris administration is unlikely to intervene to help protect America’s national interest in Asia or those of our allies such as Japan, [the Philippines] or even Taiwan,” Capt. Fanell said.
He compared the gap to the decision by the Obama administration in 2012 not to respond forcefully to China’s seizure of the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, saying it only encouraged the Chinese military to build up more strategically located islands in the sea that are now armed with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles.
“Wherever the U.S. leaves a vacuum, [China] fills it with their military forces,” Capt. Fanell said. An Indo-Pacific Command spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.S. presence in the region.
Then the day after this report the Pentagon announces: U.S. military open to escorting Philippine ships in the South China Sea, senior admiral says
It’s always – make terrible decisions that create dangerous strategic opportunities for our adversaries, then pedal some weak tea assurance to our allies afterwards. This is a repeat of the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle, trusting the Taliban for security outside the airport in Kabul, of Ukraine, where the Biden administration weakness emboldened Putin, of Israel, where the Biden administration has tried to hamstring Israel to appease Hamas terrorists, and of Iran where Biden removed the Houthis from the terrorist watch list and now Iran keeps arming the Houthis to attack American forces in the region.
After watching four years of Biden-Harris military decisions, well, China is going to act sooner rather than later. We have no aircraft carrier in the Indo-Pacific, so the Biden administration offers a fig leaf to our Philippine ally that the US military is open to escorting their ships under threat by Chinese vessels ramming them. I doubt this US being open to discussing US escort is very reassuring to them. In Manila they’ve been watching the Houthis too. The US Navy has sizable assets in the region that could have demolished the Houthis and deterred Iran, but all the Biden administration whines about is a ceasefire, while letting the Houthi attacks go unpunished. The Houthis have been allowed to severely impede shipping in the Red Sea.
The Biden Pentagon keeps sending more and more ships and military assets to the ME, but then hamstrings them from defeating the Houthis or stopping Iran from arming the Houthis.
A bunch of rebel bands have defeated the US Navy, because of the Biden administration’s epic strategic failures. Here’s the British Telegraph: The Houthis have defeated the US Navy
China, Russia and Iran are watching closely and preparing to take more aggressive actions, while the US has the JOY campaign vs. Trump now sucking up to far-left Dems, RFK Jr and Tulsi Gabbard, who was a Bernie Bros and is all about no more forever war…
Well, Americans better be preparing for war, because it’s on our doorstep. Weakness is as provocative as aggression. No amount of Kamala JOY and vibes or Trump embracing RFK Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again or Tulsi whispering in his ear about how we shouldn’t do anything militarily is going to save us.
If you keep getting all excited about the dramas the Kamala Joy & Vibes campaign is blabbing about or thrilled about the Trump new unity with far-left Dems, perhaps it’s time for a reality check — China is going to make some big moves sooner rather than later.
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