Tag: veterans affairs

Background Briefing: November 11, 2019

 

Why Haven’t Trump’s Generals, The “Adults,” Spoken Out?

We begin on this Veteran’s Day with an Army and a Navy veteran, both of whom are concerned about a dangerous anomaly which no veteran or serving member in the military has ever had to contemplate, and that is whether their Commander-in-Chief is a patriot or possibly a traitor. We begin with Lucian Truscott IV, a journalist and author of five bestselling novels and a graduate of West Point whose grandfather was a highly decorated General and among the few officers who commanded a Division, a Corps and a Field Army during World War II and his father commanded an infantry company in Korea and an infantry battalion in Vietnam. Lucian has covered the wars in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan and is a regular columnist for Salon where he has an article “It’s about the oil stupid: Trump wants to end the forever wars, except the one about oil and money” and we will discuss emerging information about how much the generals around Trump, the so-called “adults”, tried to do damage control and thwart impulsive and idiotic moves their Commander-in-Chief was prone to making. We will assess the looming possibility of a showdown when Trump gives an unlawful order to his military or embarks on a “wag the dog” war to distract the American public from his impeachment problems. Or even worse, threatens to use nuclear weapons, the control of which he has at his fingertips, which given Trump’s unstable mental state and morbid obsession with nukes, is a very real concern. Then of course there is the overriding question of whether Trump is working for Putin and against the interests and national security of the United States?

 

A Highly Decorated Veteran on Our “Bone Spur” Commander-in-Chief

Then we speak with Dr. Philip Butler, a 1961 graduate of the United State Naval Academy and a former light-attack carrier pilot who was shot down over North Vietnam in 1965 and spent eight years as a prisoner of war. A highly decorated combat veteran who was awarded two Silver Stars, two Legions of Merit, two Bronze Stars and Two Purple Hearts, Phil joins us on this Veterans Day to discuss his concerns about our “bone spur” president who has a tin-pot dictator’s affection for military parades and an undisguised admiration for tough-guy autocrats and kleptocratic despots. We will investigate the possibility of reaching Trump’s supporters who consider themselves patriots, with the abundant evidence that their leader is a corrupt and compromised criminal out for himself who is highly motivated to stay in office in order to avoid jail.