XPost: soc.culture.russia, talk.politics.misc, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: alt.politics, soc.culture.russia, alt.politics.liberalism   
   XPost: sci.military.naval, soc.culture.usa   
   From: willyt1955@yahoomail.com   
      
   > On 2021-05-28, Fat Queer Boob tRUMP  wrote:   
   >> Trump¶'s claim about fallen soldiers draws outrage: ¶'soulless   
   >> coward,¶' ¶'deranged¶'   
   >>   
   >> WASHINGTON (AP) ¶- For U.S. presidents, meeting the families of   
   >> military personnel killed in war is about as wrenching as the   
   >> presidency gets. President Donald Trump¶'s suggestion Monday that his   
   >> predecessors fell short in that duty brought a visceral reaction from   
   >> those who witnessed those grieving encounters.   
   >>   
   >> ¶"He¶'s a deranged animal,¶" Alyssa Mastromonaco, a former deputy chief   
   >> of staff to President Barack Obama, tweeted about Trump. With an   
   >> expletive, she called Trump¶'s statement in the Rose Garden a lie.   
   >>   
   >> Trump said in a news conference he had written letters to the families   
   >> of four soldiers killed two weeks ago in Niger. He then said he also   
   >> planned to call them, crediting himself with taking extra steps in   
   >> honoring the dead properly. ¶"Most of them didn¶'t make calls,¶" he   
   >> said of his predecessors. He said it¶'s possible that Obama ¶"did   
   >> sometimes¶" but ¶"other presidents did not call.¶"   
   >>   
   >> The record is plain that presidents reached out to families of the dead   
   >> and to the wounded, often with their presence as well as by letter and   
   >> phone. The path to Walter Reed and other military hospitals, as well as   
   >> to the Dover, Delaware, Air Force Base where the remains of fallen   
   >> soldiers are often brought, is a familiar one to Obama, George W. Bush   
   >> and others.   
   >>   
   >> Bush, even at the height of two wars, ¶"wrote all the families of the   
   >> fallen,¶" said Freddy Ford, spokesman for the ex-president. Ford said   
   >> Bush also called or met ¶"hundreds, if not thousands¶" of family   
   >> members of the war dead.   
   >>   
   >> Obama¶'s official photographer, Pete Souza, tweeted that he   
   >> photographed Obama ¶"meeting with hundreds of wounded soldiers, and   
   >> family members of those killed in action.¶" Others recalled his   
   >> frequent visits with Gold Star families, and travels to Walter Reed,   
   >> Dover and other venues with families of the dead and with the wounded.   
   >>   
   >> Retired Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs   
   >> of Staff, confirmed these contacts, tweeting: ¶"POTUS 43 & 44 and first   
   >> ladies cared deeply, worked tirelessly for the serving, the fallen, and   
   >> their families. Not politics. Sacred Trust.¶"   
   >>   
   >> San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who has been an outspoken   
   >> critic of Trump, weighed in as well, calling the president ¶"a soulless   
   >> coward who thinks that he can only become large by belittling others.¶"   
   >>   
   >> The coach told The Nation magazine that Trump¶'s comments Monday were   
   >> ¶"beyond the pale¶" and ¶"as low as it gets.¶"   
   >>   
   >> Trump addressed the matter when asked why he had not spoken about the   
   >> four soldiers killed in Niger on Oct. 4. They died when militants   
   >> thought to be affiliated with the Islamic State group ambushed them   
   >> while they were patrolling in unarmored trucks with Nigerien troops.   
   >>   
   >> ¶"I actually wrote letters individually to the soldiers we¶'re talking   
   >> about, and they¶'re going to be going out either today or tomorrow,¶"   
   >> he said, meaning he wrote to the families of the fallen soldiers. He   
   >> did not explain why letters had not been sent yet, more than a week   
   >> after the attack.   
   >>   
   >> ¶"If you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them   
   >> didn¶'t make calls,¶" Trump said.   
   >>   
   >> Pressed on that statement later, he said of Obama: ¶"I was told that he   
   >> didn¶'t often, and a lot of presidents don¶'t. They write letters.¶" He   
   >> went on: ¶"President Obama, I think, probably did sometimes, and maybe   
   >> sometimes he didn¶'t. I don¶'t know. That¶'s what I was told. ¶. Some   
   >> presidents didn¶'t do anything.¶"   
   >>   
   >> Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said later that Trump ¶"wasn¶'t   
   >> criticizing predecessors, but stating a fact.¶" She argued that   
   >> presidents didn¶'t always call families of those killed in battle:   
   >> ¶"Sometimes they call, sometimes they send a letter, other times they   
   >> have the opportunity to meet family members in person.¶"   
   >>   
   >> She said anyone claiming a former president had called every family was   
   >> ¶"mistaken.¶"   
   >>   
   >> Bush¶'s commitment to writing to all military families of the dead and   
   >> to reaching out by phone or meeting with many others came despite the   
   >> enormity of the task. In the Iraq war alone, U.S. combat deaths were   
   >> highest during his presidency, exceeding 800 each year from 2004   
   >> through 2007. The number fell to 313 in Bush¶'s last year in office as   
   >> the insurgency faded. Bush once said he felt the appropriate way to   
   >> show his respect was to meet family members in private.   
   >>   
   >> Obama declared an end to combat operations in Iraq in August 2010 and   
   >> the last U.S. troops were withdrawn in December 2011. As Obama wound   
   >> down that war, he sent tens of thousands more troops into Afghanistan   
   >> in 2009 and 2010, and the death count mounted. From a total of 155   
   >> Americans killed in Afghanistan in 2008, which was Bush¶'s last full   
   >> year in office, the number jumped to 311 in 2009 and peaked the next   
   >> year at 498. In all, more than 1,700 died in Afghanistan on Obama¶'s   
   >> watch.   
   >>   
   >> Among other rituals honoring military families, the Obamas had a ¶"Gold   
   >> Star¶" Christmas tree in the White House decorated with hundreds of   
   >> photos and notes from people who had lost loved ones in war. Gold Star   
   >> families visited during the holidays, bringing ornaments.   
   >>   
   >> Trump visited Dover early in his presidency, going in February with his   
   >> daughter Ivanka for the return of the remains of a U.S. Navy SEAL   
   >> killed during a raid in Yemen, William ¶"Ryan¶" Owens.   
   >>   
   >> Trump¶'s relations with Gold Star families have not always been smooth,   
   >> dating from his belittlement of the parents of slain U.S. soldier   
   >> Humayun Khan, who was Muslim. Trump was angered when the soldier¶'s   
   >> father, Khizr Khan, was given a platform to criticize him at the   
   >> Democratic National Convention.   
   >>   
   >> Owens¶' grieving father said he didn¶'t want to talk with Trump at   
   >> Dover. But the sailor¶'s widow, Carryn, attended Trump¶'s address to   
   >> Congress and wept as he thanked her.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)