Suckers. Losers. They ran into machine guns for you and me, and this is all he can say about them.
"What was in it for him?" He asked the father of a slain son, who had given his life in a war that has lasted far too long, but was begun because we had been attacked. I can tell him: Honor, duty, country. MacArthur said it back in '62, as he walked away from the duty he had given. He believed those things to be damn near sacred, the kinds of things you don't question, the kinds of things nobody questions.
Not 45, though. Those things are meaningless unless there's a buck to be made. Unless he can walk away without getting his hair mussed.
Americans came to France in 1918 with a grim job to do: Unstick a war that had been stuck for four years, mired in long, ugly trenches with rats and lice and endless death. The Germans were coming on, one last time, to try to take Paris.
They were too late. The Americans had arrived. The French were retreating one last time, too, and told the Americans at Belleau Wood that it would be in their best interests to do so. Uh-uh. "Hell," said one American officer, "We just got here." And they ran into those machine guns. 116,000 didn't come back, in all--116,000 suckers and losers, I guess, according to our great leader.
That's not to mention the next time we entered Europe with stopping Germans in mind, and Japanese in the Pacific, and Italians for as long as they resisted. 440,000 gone. Losers, I guess.
The ones who came back would never, ever call them that. They'd been under fire and considered themselves nothing but lucky--certainly no better than those who had fallen. I hope, really, really hope, that this latest blasphemy upon our country by its elected leader reaches every single one of them who managed to get home, whether in one piece or not. I hope they think about what 45 has just said--that, if they had died, given the "last full measure of devotion," as Lincoln said at Gettysburg, he would call them that.
But no: They were suckers. They died, many of them in great pain, for nothing, I guess. Nothing, except a better world, if just for 75 years, until a disgusting bag of garbage decided to run, con enough people to vote for him, and make a tidy profit off the advantages--which, after all, is the only thing he's in it for.
They thought giving themselves up for future generations matters. To him, nothing like that will ever matter and ever has. If he can't make a dollar, it's worthless. All environmental protections to extend the future of our planet will be dashed if there's a buck to be made. All arms deals with other countries will happen--only if there's a buck to be made. The balance of power, getting people angry--those things don't matter. Just me, the great, great me.
Somehow, he has been able to get through his life without having to stand accountable for his prevarications. That will end, it says here, the minute he stops being president: The Southern District of New York has plans for him. But in the meantime, we must suffer the abject humiliation of having the absolute worst kind of person represent an awful lot of people who are decent, kind, and honest: Who think and have always thought that duty, honor and country matter most.
I want to have a word with those who don't think this matters. They're the ones who wear the red hats and brag about our military might, as if that's all we have to brag about. They're suckers, too. They were easily, and perhaps still are being easily, fooled by a man of large physical stature who's nothing of a man at all. He is small, tiny, someone to be avoided. I would never approach him. I would never make friends with him, regardless of what could be gained by it.
This man insulted my father, who with good luck made it home from the Navy, one of the last survivors of World War II. He insults my late uncles, who got home only after running into harrowing events. He insults high school classmates of mine, who went off to Vietnam, a dirty, awful war, who put themselves in harm's way just the same. He insults my nephew, a member of the National Guard in Minnesota, who wants to become an Army Ranger--just another sucker, I guess. He should try running that past his mother.
He insults everybody who ever served this country in uniform, going all the way back to the Continental Army, commanded by George Washington, who risked death just like those who suffered it. They were suckers? They created this country out of whole cloth, with a prayer and not much else.
I've long since given up figuring out how so many millions can stand by this terrible person, so maybe this won't be the last straw, either. They might still. But I want them to read what he said about the people they say they support the most--corroborated by four independent sources, a bit of excellent reporting so as not to dismiss it as mere rumor. I want them to tell me if they've had enough now. I want them to see what he thinks, what he really thinks, of their patriotism.
Nothing. And if they can't bring themselves to believe that, they're suckers, too. Sorry. When you choose not to think, you become a sucker.
Be well. Be careful. Wear a mask. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
I think Eisenhower would have been a better example of patriotism than MacArthur. He really mismanaged the war in the Pacific and his men hated him. My parents would have liked him to have been courtmartialed, and afterwards either hanged or shot.He may have had a personality disorder- megalomania, really unsuited for duty.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise a very heart-felt article and I think my parents would have been proud.
It was MacArthur who evoked "duty, honor, country" in his farewell speech to the corps of Army Cadets in 1964. I thought I'd use that to make me point. MacArthur was controversial throughout his career, in no small part because he challenged the authority of President Truman during the Korean War, and was relieved of his command because of it. So I see your point. But he still accomplished a great deal, and the speech is a classic.
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