It's Always About Him?

It is not about four brave and honorable men (Sgt. La David Johnson, Staff Sgt. Bryan Black, Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson, and Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright) who chose to serve their (our) country at great risk to themselves and paid the ultimate price for doing so. It is not about the inconsolable grief of families who have lost their loved ones, or a pain so great that no words can begin to blunt it. It is not even about honoring those patriotic heroes who died on a mission that still remains unclear!  No sir, it is always about that great man who thinks he is unfairly criticized by people who expect him to show some compassion and competence.

It was some twelve days after the tragic events that took the lives of those brave soldiers in Niger before Donald Trump uttered a single word about those soldiers or about what happened on that fateful day.  And when he finally did say something about the loss of those lives it was in answer to a reporter who asked if he had called the bereaved families.  "Had he" was all the license Trump needed to make it about himself.  He instantly become defensive and lied about what he normally did when soldiers died and about what his predecessors normally did.  He then said he intended to call those families.

Donald Trump is as socially awkward as Richard Nixon and is not even close to being as articulate as Nixon was. So what could go possibly go wrong with Trump calling grieving families? It did not take us long to find out. During his condolence call to the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson Trump managed to upset her, Sgt, Johnson's mother and his father as well as a good friend of the Johnson family, Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson, all of whom were listening to the conversation on a speaker phone. Congresswoman Wilson was so upset by what she heard that she publicly criticized Trump as being insensitive for saying that Staff Sgt. Johnson ...“must have known what he signed up for.”

Trump responded by denying Congresswoman Wilson's account of the conversation and by saying he had proof that her account was not accurate. Sgt. Johnson's mother, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, however, has corroborated Congresswoman Wilson's account.  And she added that “President Trump did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my husband.” As usual the fake President is blaming this issue on what he falsely calls the fake news and the “liars,” who have this nasty habit of telling the truth!

With Donald Trump trying to pull us all into the dark and smelly place where his head and ego reside it is often difficult to keep sight of the questions we should be asking. What actually happened in Niger?  Why were our brave soldiers caught off guard by a force that was not considered to be that competent or strong? Could Rachael Maddow have found the answer to that? Last night she reported that Donald Trump inexplicably included “Chad on the travel ban against the advice of foreign policy experts and multiple officials.”  And Chad started removing its troops from Niger within a week of being placed on the travel ban list.

"[T]hose Chadian troops were really doing something in Niger. They were protecting those villages in that whole region from ISIS militant groups being able to operate freely and be able to take more territory from there once again," Maddow explained. "And pulling those troops out had an immediate effect in emboldening those ISIS attacks.”

As Ms Maddow said, four American soldiers were ambushed and killed less than a week after Chad started pulling its troops out of Niger.

Whether Ms. Maddow has found the answer or not we need to know why Trump put Chad on the travel ban list and what really happened in Niger. John McCain is right when he says we need to get to the bottom of this. This is not Trump's Benghazi as I have heard someone say. Republicans ignored five investigations of the Benghazi incident and used that incident to conduct a highly partisan witch hunt. We do not want a witch hunt we want the truth whatever that truth may be. We can sort out questions of culpability, if anyone was culpable, when we get the facts.

I have to add here that I wrote most of this post yesterday and events have moved so fast that I now feel compelled to add a comment.  Donald Trump dragged General Kelly into this controversy by saying that when General Kelly's son was killed in Afghanistan President Obama did not make a condolence call. Trump also said that General Kelly was there and could confirm that Trump did not say what Congresswoman Wilson accused him of saying to Sgt. Johnson's widow.  General Kelly has now held a press conference in which he affirmed that President Obama did not call him, and he said it would have been unusual for a President to have made such a call.  Not being content with that General Kelly, Trump's Chief Of Staff, went on to make accusations against Congresswoman Wilson that were untrue and extraneous to the issue at hand!  Unfortunately for General Kelly he is now one more piece of evidence proving that no reputation goes unsullied in the Trump administration.  You simply cannot serve Trump and the truth at the same time!