> On 2021-05-28, Fat Queer Boob tRUMP <jthonq@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Trump�'s claim about fallen soldiers draws outrage: �'soulless
>> coward,�' �'deranged�'
>>
>> WASHINGTON (AP) �- For U.S. presidents, meeting the families of
>> military personnel killed in war is about as wrenching as the
>> presidency gets. President Donald Trump�'s suggestion Monday that his
>> predecessors fell short in that duty brought a visceral reaction from
>> those who witnessed those grieving encounters.
>>
>> �"He�'s a deranged animal,�" Alyssa Mastromonaco, a former deputy chief
>> of staff to President Barack Obama, tweeted about Trump. With an
>> expletive, she called Trump�'s statement in the Rose Garden a lie.
>>
>> Trump said in a news conference he had written letters to the families
>> of four soldiers killed two weeks ago in Niger. He then said he also
>> planned to call them, crediting himself with taking extra steps in
>> honoring the dead properly. �"Most of them didn�'t make calls,�" he
>> said of his predecessors. He said it�'s possible that Obama �"did
>> sometimes�" but �"other presidents did not call.�"
>>
>> The record is plain that presidents reached out to families of the dead
>> and to the wounded, often with their presence as well as by letter and
>> phone. The path to Walter Reed and other military hospitals, as well as
>> to the Dover, Delaware, Air Force Base where the remains of fallen
>> soldiers are often brought, is a familiar one to Obama, George W. Bush
>> and others.
>>
>> Bush, even at the height of two wars, �"wrote all the families of the
>> fallen,�" said Freddy Ford, spokesman for the ex-president. Ford said
>> Bush also called or met �"hundreds, if not thousands�" of family
>> members of the war dead.
>>
>> Obama�'s official photographer, Pete Souza, tweeted that he
>> photographed Obama �"meeting with hundreds of wounded soldiers, and
>> family members of those killed in action.�" Others recalled his
>> frequent visits with Gold Star families, and travels to Walter Reed,
>> Dover and other venues with families of the dead and with the wounded.
>>
>> Retired Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs
>> of Staff, confirmed these contacts, tweeting: �"POTUS 43 & 44 and first
>> ladies cared deeply, worked tirelessly for the serving, the fallen, and
>> their families. Not politics. Sacred Trust.�"
>>
>> San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who has been an outspoken
>> critic of Trump, weighed in as well, calling the president �"a soulless
>> coward who thinks that he can only become large by belittling others.�"
>>
>> The coach told The Nation magazine that Trump�'s comments Monday were
>> �"beyond the pale�" and �"as low as it gets.�"
>>
>> Trump addressed the matter when asked why he had not spoken about the
>> four soldiers killed in Niger on Oct. 4. They died when militants
>> thought to be affiliated with the Islamic State group ambushed them
>> while they were patrolling in unarmored trucks with Nigerien troops.
>>
>> �"I actually wrote letters individually to the soldiers we�'re talking
>> about, and they�'re going to be going out either today or tomorrow,�"
>> he said, meaning he wrote to the families of the fallen soldiers. He
>> did not explain why letters had not been sent yet, more than a week
>> after the attack.
>>
>> �"If you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them
>> didn�'t make calls,�" Trump said.
>>
>> Pressed on that statement later, he said of Obama: �"I was told that he
>> didn�'t often, and a lot of presidents don�'t. They write letters.�" He
>> went on: �"President Obama, I think, probably did sometimes, and maybe
>> sometimes he didn�'t. I don�'t know. That�'s what I was told. �. Some
>> presidents didn�'t do anything.�"
>>
>> Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said later that Trump �"wasn�'t
>> criticizing predecessors, but stating a fact.�" She argued that
>> presidents didn�'t always call families of those killed in battle:
>> �"Sometimes they call, sometimes they send a letter, other times they
>> have the opportunity to meet family members in person.�"
>>
>> She said anyone claiming a former president had called every family was
>> �"mistaken.�"
>>
>> Bush�'s commitment to writing to all military families of the dead and
>> to reaching out by phone or meeting with many others came despite the
>> enormity of the task. In the Iraq war alone, U.S. combat deaths were
>> highest during his presidency, exceeding 800 each year from 2004
>> through 2007. The number fell to 313 in Bush�'s last year in office as
>> the insurgency faded. Bush once said he felt the appropriate way to
>> show his respect was to meet family members in private.
>>
>> Obama declared an end to combat operations in Iraq in August 2010 and
>> the last U.S. troops were withdrawn in December 2011. As Obama wound
>> down that war, he sent tens of thousands more troops into Afghanistan
>> in 2009 and 2010, and the death count mounted. From a total of 155
>> Americans killed in Afghanistan in 2008, which was Bush�'s last full
>> year in office, the number jumped to 311 in 2009 and peaked the next
>> year at 498. In all, more than 1,700 died in Afghanistan on Obama�'s
>> watch.
>>
>> Among other rituals honoring military families, the Obamas had a �"Gold
>> Star�" Christmas tree in the White House decorated with hundreds of
>> photos and notes from people who had lost loved ones in war. Gold Star
>> families visited during the holidays, bringing ornaments.
>>
>> Trump visited Dover early in his presidency, going in February with his
>> daughter Ivanka for the return of the remains of a U.S. Navy SEAL
>> killed during a raid in Yemen, William �"Ryan�" Owens.
>>
>> Trump�'s relations with Gold Star families have not always been smooth,
>> dating from his belittlement of the parents of slain U.S. soldier
>> Humayun Khan, who was Muslim. Trump was angered when the soldier�'s
>> father, Khizr Khan, was given a platform to criticize him at the
>> Democratic National Convention.
>>
>> Owens�' grieving father said he didn�'t want to talk with Trump at
>> Dover. But the sailor�'s widow, Carryn, attended Trump�'s address to
>> Congress and wept as he thanked her.