By Dwight Cunningham
You wake up one morning and learn that we’re at war. No real inkling that was going to be your day — but there you were, watching the president in a baseball cap telling us, to our weary faces, that Americans will die. Just because.
Other top war officials cavalierly also proclaim that war is hell and, yes, Americans will die.
So, another day you wake up and their sinful prophecy has immediately come to pass. Six Americans aboard a refueling tanker crash with no survivors.
Donald Trump meets their flag-draped coffins at Dover Air Force Base, wearing a baseball cap and then issuing a fundraising plea on his social media — as an airman’s body moves past the president’s soulless body.
Then one day you wake up and you hear about a US strike killing Iranian schoolgirls. Washington takes no responsibility, even though verified accounts show that it was an American super weapon that hit its target. But the targeting was off because the maps and the technology didn’t jibe.
Another day you wake up and you wanna go back to sleep after learning that your cost of living has skyrocketed. Gasoline is up at least $1 more a gallon, food prices have crept up again and your day is confounded with tough choices as everyday living — (“We’ve tamed inflation. Everybody knows that!”) — gets harder.
Another day you learn that farmers are bemoaning the cost of diesel and fertilizer in this wartime excursion.
Then another day you wake up breathlessly awaiting prime-time news-news about when this conscious nightmare will end – only to hear Trump recount lies and add more game-show bluster to the moment.
Mere hours pass and you wake up to news that the Pentagon has jettisoned its top Army general, the chief of staff. Who does that in the middle of a war? Also kicked out is the Army’s top chaplain. On Good Friday Eve, no less.
But the next day is the capper: an American F15E fighter jet is shot down by Iranian forces. One Air Force crew member is rescued, but there’s another one missing, fate unknown and a $70,000 bounty on his head. The Iranians want the airman alive — and what a bargaining chip that would be against “The Great Satan.”
Having a downed American airman behind enemy lines is a logistical and operational nightmare. It puts dozens of personnel in slow-moving aircraft at risk for all kinds of incoming fire. (So much for having no boots on the ground, heh, Donald?)
But embedded in this daily narrative of Trump’s illogical war machine are clear signs that things aren’t going too well for our military.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has blocked the promotion of four colonels — two Black and two women officers — primarily because of their race or gender. Bet that doesn’t help morale throughout the ranks, especially among current and prospective enlistees, as well as service academy cadets and midshipmen. (“Should I stay in or get out, because my Commander in Chief thinks I’m a diversity hire?”)
Then there’s the biggest warship in the world, the USS Gerald Ford. You remember, that’s the $1.3 billion aircraft carrier whose toilets don’t work.
In the middle of air operations against Iran, the Ford reported a massive laundry room fire that took hours to contain and injured about 200 sailors. However, new reports suggest that it got seriously hit by enemy fire.
Whatever really happened remains under wraps — for now. But the reality is that the prized CVN-78 recently limped into Crete and faces two long years in dry dock repairs.
What an embarrassment —regardless of the facts or just how the Navy flagship became disabled during war. It is down for the count, and our global sea power is clearly more questionable with a super carrier out of commission. (With Taiwan in mind, China ought to be gloating over this development.)
Morale aboard the Ford was already at low tide because the crew was on a record overseas deployment exceeding 10 months, including Venezuelan operations. That’s a mighty long time to be on station and far away from home sweet home.
On another one of these dreadful days of late, you learn that the Army wants you to enlist — get this, up to age 42. (As an Air Force veteran who enlisted at 17, I’d like to see some 40–something finish a 50-mile hike with a full load of gear on one’s back. I’ll bring the popcorn.)
Today, Trump wants a $1.5 trillion budget for military spending. He says no need for day care, health care, bridges and roads. We’re going to get rich selling US oil to the world, in part because we’ve got all this seized Venezuelan crude.
There are also unconfirmed reports that possibly 700 service members have been wounded or injured in this conflict. And then there are 13 American service members who fulfilled their oath to the Constitution.
Trump goes by a different oath. His bravado is scripted not to unite but rather to dismantle alliances and cause world dismay. His nonsensical rhetoric are lies spewed with venomous rapture: “Bomb them back to the Stone Age, where they belong.” (Wow. Just wow!)
So, one day soon I hope the Pentagon and our national security press corps work harder to get the truth out of this nefarious, kleptocratic regime.
Their watchdog incisors need only to follow Trump’s fading bully blueprint.
Just tell it like it is, for pity’s sake.
The angles of American worn are everywhere.
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