COMMANDER IN CHIEF LET US ALL DOWN
We should be ashamed of what he told a soldier’s widow and fear for our ideals
Hands down the most important national commitment we have is honoring the fallen and caring for the family members they leave behind.
That commitment requires we welcome the fallen home as one of our most solemn national acts, one which should be above politics, and we expect our elected leaders to serve as consolers to their relatives. It is intolerable that Army Sgt. La David Johnson’s family has now been thrust into the latest episode of the Trump Show.
We all saw pictures of Sgt. La David Johnson’s wife, Myeshia, and one of their children grief stricken after his casket was offloaded. Her dignity deserved to be met with dignity and compassion by her president. That apparently didn’t happen, which is intolerable because it runs counter to what we claim as our ideals. America is at its best when we live up to the ideals set by those who came before us. Without them, we might well have remained subjects of the crown.
TRUMP’S WORD
I accept as at least mostly true Rep. Frederica Wilson’s account of the conversation between Ms. Johnson and President Trump. There is no rational basis to take Trump at his word. He has spent the past several days repeatedly lying, even after being confronted with the truth, about the practices of former presidents with respect to the fallen.
Retired general John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, has more credibility. He and his wife, Karen, have borne more sacrifice than any family should for this country. But nothing he said Thursday was responsive to the concerns raised by the Johnson family, and no attack on the behavior of a congresswoman negates the fact that Sgt. Johnson’s mother confirmed her account on the record. All of this could be avoided were Trump not constitutionally incapable of admitting his own numerous mistakes.
Kelly is an American hero. Sgt. Johnson was a hero, too. He met his wife when they were 6 and, by all accounts, he was the husband any father would want for his daughter and the father every mother wants for her children. They got married and had two kids and have one more on the way. He joined to serve his country and provide the best opportunities he could for his young family. He mattered.
So did the mission in Niger. Working with our French allies, U.S. forces are helping to drive out a variety of al- Qaeda and ISIS-affiliated groups. We should not forget that one of those groups, Boko Haram, kidnapped young girls from school in Nigeria and married them off to its fighters. Sgt. Johnson and the three other Green Berets died standing up for the very best of American ideals in a particularly dangerous part of the world.
‘RESPECT FOR THE MILITARY’
After we learned of the casualties, I watched for Trump’s response. I thought this would be an opportunity for him to demonstrate the maturity and dignity necessary to be president while also promising to chase the terrorists who killed these Green Berets to the gates of hell. I wanted the president to succeed in this most solemn of duties. I watched for 12 days wondering how he’d acknowledge the fallen, wondering even whether his silence was necessary to achieve a military objective.
I was horrified when he made a point of telling journalists how hard these calls were for him, seemingly oblivious to the overwhelming grief we all saw in that photo of Ms. Johnson doubled over her husband’s casket.
This president ran on “respect for the military,” which he repeatedly claimed that former presi- dent Barack Obama lacked.
My frustration with Obama’s lack of communication with the families of Marines held abroad, one held hostage in Iran, was loud and well-documented. Obama was dealing with significant casualties on a daily and weekly basis, and I think he did a good job acknowledging them and comforting families. Yet again, faced with an utter failure to perform his most important duties, Trump reverted to untrue attacks on Obama, and that is intolerable.
These coming home rituals for the fallen often serve as the foundation for how their young children will remember them. We should all be ashamed that Sgt. Johnson’s kids will one day read that the commander in chief made their mother cry.
The extent to which we’ve allowed our politics to be hijacked by anger, ignorance, lies and hate should alarm us all. Too many have allowed their worst angels to draw them into a cult of personality. Our nation will survive, but the ideals that have sustained it since its inception might not.