Buttigieg’s Hollow Military Bragging
National Review,
by
Kyle Smith
Original Article
Posted By: Pluperfect,
1/23/2020 4:46:31 AM
Imagine you heard that someone got a “direct diploma” from Harvard but didn’t actually have to do four years of papers and tests.
The term “veteran” wields a strange talismanic power in American politics today; the military is almost the only institution in American life that has maintained very high favorability ratings over the past 30 years. Invocation of the sacred words “military service” invariably grants a presumed license to make ad hominem arguments: “Oh yeah? What do you know about it? Did you serve?” A military past, regardless of how extensive it was, tends to be seen as a shining jewel on the résumé of a politician.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
PChristopher 1/23/2020 5:03:10 AM (No. 295758)
Years ago, when we were gearing up for Desert Storm, the Sequel, I remember reading about some snowflake who had been arrested for refusing to ship out with his unit. Why? He said he'd joined the Army for the benefits; he never thought he'd ever have to actually fight somebody. In better days, I'm pretty sure I know how his case would've been handled.
10 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
MrDeplorable 1/23/2020 5:27:03 AM (No. 295768)
What I find strange is that no one who served with Buttigieg has yet come forward to tell us about the Mayor’s derring-do outside the wire (OTW). And if he was a “direct commission” in Naval Intelligence, his OTW trips were likely protected by a squad or two of US Marines.
13 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
The Other Guy 1/23/2020 5:30:49 AM (No. 295769)
The second greatest president in modern times was Reagan, he never served. Trump is number one, also never having served. The second worst president was Carter, a Navy vet. Obama is number one. I'm retired Air Force and have been exposed to the spectrum of positive and negative attributes of both the enlisted and officer corps and know that, "I'm a vet", doesn't equal ability.
22 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
greggojo 1/23/2020 5:57:21 AM (No. 295774)
Hard to decide which is worse, Buttigieg's phony claims of military prowess/achievement or Democrats' inevitable championing of and attachment to hypocritical phonies. Trump never served, and Trump loves the military. Buttigieg service is lukewarm and Buttigieg heralds the military abusing John Kerry as his hero. (The media missed/deliberately misinterpreted the great story of 2004's election: 250 basically apolitical men, left hearth and home to travel the country to tell America about Kerry's disloyal and shameful military history, something I believe they would have done, even if Kerry had not kicked off his acceptance of the Democrat nomination with his unbelievably false and cynical staged "reporting for duty" "military" presentation.)
11 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
GO3 1/23/2020 6:14:07 AM (No. 295780)
Correction #3, Reagan did serve. He was commissioned a Lt. in the Army Cavalry and later went into Army PAO and film making.
13 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
F15 Gork 1/23/2020 6:54:29 AM (No. 295798)
And then there was John “Swift Boat” Kerry, who by the way served (briefly) in Vietnam.
5 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
chumley 1/23/2020 6:59:22 AM (No. 295802)
Military people are generally more honorable and patriotic than the public at large, but it is no guarantee. After I retired, I hired back into the same base I retired from. Another E-7 did the same at the same time. A year later, after hearing daily tirades about how crooked GW was, I overheard him encouraging his former troops to disobey GW's orders. No action was ever taken, but his troops laughed at him and avoided him after that.
9 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
udanja99 1/23/2020 8:10:04 AM (No. 295848)
“ A military past, regardless of how extensive it was, tends to be seen as a shining jewel on the résumé of a politician.”
Unless you happen to be General Flynn and work for the Trump administration.
13 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
lakerman1 1/23/2020 8:19:38 AM (No. 295856)
I'm taking an inductive leap here, but could it be that there was an existing homosexual mafia in the Navy officer corps when Peter the Homosexual was granted a direct commission, and that the Navy was trying to boost its homosexual head count?
8 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
chance_232 1/23/2020 8:33:52 AM (No. 295878)
I served for 10 years. I got paid, trained and traveled all at your expense.
My views on veterans..... I expect MORE from them. They dont get a pass for service. They dont get a pass for combat service. We should be held to a higher standard, just likecwe hold law enforcement officers to a higher standard. We should ACT honorably, we SHOULD be more honest and we should be more patriotic.
12 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
cor-vet 1/23/2020 9:14:00 AM (No. 295916)
I can't believe Kyle forgot about the other democrat war hero, 'DaNang' Dick Blumenthal!
8 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
FLCracker 1/23/2020 9:56:18 PM (No. 296685)
We had an officer in Afghanistan that "drove around." Someone described as "free-ranging between K2 and Bagram."
(Convoys going outside the wire had to have a certain number of vehicles and long arms in them, depending on where and when you were going. If you didn't have enough people, you scrounged up whomever you could to make up the numbers.)
That he was an officer and doing this meant he didn't have any gainful employment and nobody wanted him around.
2 people like this.
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