Trump is a fair-weather friend to the troops
The President seems to love the troops, unless, of course, it's raining or there's a draft and he is required to serve. In both of those cases, well, the President was unwilling to inconvenience himself for the military. He is, quite literally, a fair-weather friend, engaging with the men and women who put their lives on the line to defend our nation only when it benefits him.
Until Wednesday, Trump had yet to visit the troops in a combat zone out of concern for "personal safety and legitimizing unpopular wars." It was reported Wednesday, however, that he stopped in Iraq for a post-Christmas visit and photo op with service members, during which he called the troops "warriors" and "patriots" who are getting "billions and billions of dollars of new equipment that (Trump) approved over the last two years."
This may appear on the surface to be a genuine effort to honor the military, but those who serve, as well as the rest of us, should not be fooled by the President's empty actions. Nor will we be.
In fact, in the aftermath of his visit, the President has been called out for making the false claim that he had given the troops their first pay raise in over a decade. No one deserves to be lied to by the President, but for the commander in chief to make false statements to the faces of those who defend the nation shows a disappointing level of disrespect.
The lives of our service members are not pawns to be moved about a political chessboard. Our soldiers and sailors and Marines and airmen are not toys to be played with by a petulant, entitled child who could never imagine serving. And the President's "very, very" special words for the military are mere empty expressions of the hypocrisy of the elite who don't themselves defend our nation.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/27/opinions/trump-iraq-visit-mondaca/index.html
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