(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Duty, Honor, Country: A Personal Reflection on Concepts Too Complex for Donald Trump to Grasp [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-09-19 Duty, Honor, Country: Concepts Too Complex for Donald Trump to Grasp Living next to a cemetery full of fallen heroes makes you think. Arlington National Cemetery is not just a collection of neat rows of tombstones; it’s a living testament to the sacrifices made by men and women who believed in something larger than themselves — something Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed paragon of patriotism, seems incapable of understanding. Now, I don’t expect everyone to grasp the weight of “Duty, Honor, Country.” I certainly didn’t when I was fresh out of college. But I learned quickly, standing in the shadow of Arlington’s hallowed grounds while stationed at Ft. Myer, Virginia, bordered by the Cemetery’s southern wall. Even a young soldier, barely familiar with the Army’s history, can feel the gravity of sacrifice just by breathing the air around those sacred 639 acres. But then there’s Donald Trump, a man whose idea of sacrifice involves giving up golf for a weekend. Trump is the same person who, on a visit to Arlington, didn’t seem to grasp that this wasn’t one of his golf courses. He wasn’t there to negotiate a land deal, yet the look on his face betrayed that he probably would’ve tried to turn the place into a resort if given the chance. Instead of humbly paying his respects, he sauntered around like a man who had merely missed a tee time. And this was supposed to be a president who “loves the military.” Funny, I never knew love could be so distant and hollow. Visiting Arlington National Cemetery and behaving like you’re just passing through on a real estate tour takes a special kind of obliviousness. But this is Donald Trump, the same man who called avoiding STDs his “personal Vietnam.” Because that’s what serving in the jungles of Vietnam was like — dodging landmines of venereal disease while bravely strolling down Fifth Avenue. Despite attending the New York Military Academy, this man never managed to internalize any of the values they presumably tried to teach him. “Duty, Honor, Country” — words that should have been burned into his brain like they are for any military school graduate. But alas, Trump must have been daydreaming about gilded chandeliers and penthouse suites during those lessons. I’ve been to Arlington too many times to count. As a young man stationed nearby, I could hardly avoid it. It was my neighbor, after all. When you live next to a place where so many of your predecessors lie in repose, the concept of sacrifice becomes more than just a word you toss around at campaign rallies. It’s a lesson in humility that Trump never received — or, more likely, rejected outright. To hear Trump talk, you’d think he’s a general. He talks about the military with the same bravado he uses to talk about steaks, slapping his name on things he has no real connection to. “Nobody loves the military more than me,” he declares, like a man professing his love for a sports team he’s never seen play. Let me clarify something: loving the military isn’t about standing in front of a tank or saluting at a parade. It’s about understanding the sacrifice of men and women who will never get to stand in front of anything again. But Trump doesn’t get it. He never got it. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. He is the same man who thought it was appropriate to say while standing beside the grieving widow of a soldier killed in combat, that her husband “knew what he was getting into.” Ah, yes. That’s precisely the level of empathy we expect from (thankfully) a former Commander-in-Chief — right up there with comforting a friend by telling them, “Well, you knew that ice cream cone was going to melt.” Now, let’s not forget Trump is a man who has built his entire image on “winning.” And in his world, winning is all about who gets the most. Whether it’s electoral votes or social media likes, as long as he’s ahead, he’s a “winner.” But in Arlington, it’s different. There’s no winning there. There’s only loss. The men and women buried in those graves didn’t “win” their wars — they sacrificed to help America win wars. They bled, and they died, often without fanfare or acknowledgment, to secure the freedoms we enjoy. Freedoms, ironically, that allowed Trump to spend his youth dodging the draft by claiming to have bone spurs. The real heroes didn’t have the luxury of a doctor’s note. I served on my local draft board before I enlisted. My job was to send young men into harm’s way. I knew, even then, the gravity of that responsibility. So, after a while, I reasoned that if I could send others into the line of fire, it would only be fitting that I was willing to stand in it myself. That’s what duty looks like. Duty doesn’t involve dodging accountability with some hastily produced medical excuse. And it certainly doesn’t include showing up at Arlington Cemetery with all the reverence of someone visiting a mini-mall. Arlington is where duty and honor converge, where the ultimate sacrifice is remembered with dignity. Yet Trump can’t even muster the basic decency to stand in awe of what the Cemetery represents. Instead, he sees it as just another stage for his endless self-promotion. I imagine him standing before the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, probably thinking, “Nobody honors the unknown better than me. I honor the best unknown soldiers. Believe me.” It’s easy to mock, but it’s also infuriating. Trump, a man whose understanding of sacrifice extends to the number of ratings his television show pulled in, dares to claim he’s done more for the military than anyone else. His idea of “supporting the troops” involves signing executive orders from his private golf club while countless veterans remain homeless, jobless, or struggling with PTSD. Trump’s claims of supporting the military are as hollow as his buildings are tall. For him, it’s all a performance. He wraps himself in the flag and calls it love. But true love for the military isn’t performative. It’s quiet respect, the kind you learn while walking among the rows of white headstones, reflecting on what it means to live in a country others died to protect. And what of his infamous breach of protocol at Arlington? The time he reportedly questioned why they didn’t get anything “out of it” — the “it” being World War I, a conflict where over 116,000 American soldiers paid the ultimate price. Trump, ever the businessman, was likely trying to calculate the return on investment of their lives, scratching his head as to why there wasn’t a Trump Tower Berlin standing in the aftermath of the Great War. Of course, for Trump, it always comes back to the deal. He’s spent his entire life selling snake oil, whether it’s overpriced real estate or false promises of patriotism. In his mind, the ultimate sacrifice doesn’t compute because there’s no transaction, tangible reward, or golden escalator at the journey’s end. The truth is that Trump doesn’t respect the military because he doesn’t understand it. He’s never had to live with the consequences of his actions or face real hardship. For him, the world is a boardroom where he always gets to be the chairman, and those who sacrifice for something bigger than themselves are just pawns — “suckers” and “losers” in his game. But for those of us who’ve served, who’ve walked through Arlington and felt the weight of that sacrifice, Trump’s hollow words and breaches of protocol are more than just offensive — they’re a reminder of what happens when you put a man without a sense of duty, honor, or country at the helm of a nation built on those very ideals. So, the next time Trump declares how much he loves the military, let’s remember that love, in his world, is just another four-letter word. And like most things with Trump, it’s all just for show. ~Dunneagin~ [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/9/19/2268351/-Duty-Honor-Country-A-Personal-Reflection-on-Concepts-Too-Complex-for-Donald-Trump-to-Grasp?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=community_spotlight&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/