With the 4th of July weekend here, I am deeply disturbed by the recent revelation that the President of the United States knew Russia had a monetary bounty on our soldier’s lives, and then did nothing about it. The story has been reported by the Military Times and multiple news organizations, giving the story credibility. It has also been reported that he had possibly known for a year, this infuriates me and should affect anyone who is associated with the military in any way. The President has failed at the most important job as the commander in chief, minimizing the danger to our troops. If the President knew the Russians had a bounty on our soldiers and did nothing about it is a dereliction of duty at a minimum. If he was not told or briefed, he needs to take accountability for his administration’s failure. Any way you look at it, taking accountability for the actions of your troops is what leaders do, it appears that this President has failed to protect our troops and should have consequences. I, for the life of me cannot understand how a sitting US President could allow this to happen with no repercussions, or even attempts at repercussions to those who had a bounty on our troops.
One of the biggest things I have trouble with is hypocrisy. Being a student of history, I know the United States has often placed bounties on terrorist and other enemies. I understand that this is war and these kinds of things happen. I know that the US has placed bounties on leaders, high-ranking military members, and terrorist but not every day military troops. Terrorist are not “officially” a part of a country’s military and therefore treated differently. But generally, this type of bounty has consequences. It appears that there were no consequences for Russia’s actions that I am aware of or has been reported.
Some say the President did not know about the bounties, OK I can go that route; it still does not negate that the fact that it happened. The White House did not deny the incident until days later and their story has been boldly inconsistent. If the President truly did not know about the bounty, then he needs to fire someone. If nothing else this is pure incompetence by the Presidents administration. Unfortunately, that is the best-case scenario we are talking about. If it comes out the President did know there has to be a price for the President to pay.
As an American military Veteran, I struggle with is this even being a question. I want to give the President the benefit of the doubt and believe him when he said he did not know, but I just cannot. The President has shown a consistent pattern of lying and the inability to take any responsibility for anything when it makes him look bad. I just cannot remember another President where this type of action could have ever taken ahold. If this had come out in another Presidency the public would have wanted their head on a stake, but not to this administration for some reason. We all know President's lie to get themselves out of trouble. We also know that past Presidents skirt the truth and lie through omission, that is a given. For many people though this is not even a question, its believable because of this Presidents history of blatant lying while in office. The President has lied so many times and so often we do not believe him even if we want to. I would like to think that there is no one in this country that would sell out our troops for their own benefits. But it feels to me that this is what happened. I know one thing for sure, I would hate to be in the military right now and feeling my government does not have my back.
I can only imagine what is like to be in the military now. To read in the Military Times that the President of the United States, Commander in Chief of our armed forces would feel it is OK for a foreign government to have a bounty on our troops head is beyond comprehension for me. When the Military Times runs the story it hard to call it “Fake News”.
If it were time from my re-enlistment or deciding whether to get out of the military or not, I believe this would answer that question. If I were intending to enlist into the military, I would question that also. This has done nothing but weaken our military and cause our troops to have a doubt in what they are fighting for. I know I have anger at this revelation. It does not matter whether I am a supporter of the President or not. What matters to me is our troops get the most support that they possibly can by the President of the United States and our government. I do not see how anyone who has ever served in the military be OK with this, if it did happen, and I believe it did.