Donald Trump has done everything possible to further his personal agenda and has stooped to the most disgusting levels just to get leverage. Not even two years into his presidency, we’ve already seen the president use several inappropriate moments to promote his agenda and exploit not only victims of disasters around the country, but our military members.
People have noticed. Retired Army Cols. Lawrence B. Wilkerson and Isaiah Wilson III are now the latest heroes to come forward and condemn the president for his exploitation of the troops, stating that they were against Trump’s plan to send troops to the Southern U.S. border over his caravan fear-mongering.
The two retired colonels have joined Professor Gordon Adams of the American University School of International Service in writing a brutal editorial in the New York Times, trashing Trump for using the military to raise his political image. Talking about Trump’s decision to send troops right ahead of the 2018 midterms, the op-ed stated:
This was a blatant political stunt. The president crossed a line — the military is supposed to stay out of domestic politics. As many senior military retirees have argued, the forces are not and should not be a political instrument. They are not toy soldiers to be moved around by political leaders but a neutral institution, politically speaking.”
The authors note that this is the first time in history that a president has practically made up a crisis with the goal of influencing midterm elections – and then used the military as a prop to make it look more believable. The men wrote:
When partisan actions like this occur, they violate civil-military traditions and erode that faith, with potentially long-term damage to the morale of the force and our democratic practice — all for electoral gain.”
You can read the whole op-ed here.
Featured image via screen capture
