Troops Leaving The Texas Border: Mission Accomplished? Top Members Of The Judiciary And Armed Services Committee Speak Out

No one except Trump's most ardent, die-hard fans ever believed U.S. troops on the southern border were anything more than a prop in Trump's shit show of a midterm campaign. Now he's running around-- with almost 40 less supporters in Congress-- clucking like a blind duck how his name wasn't on the ballot so that all those losses were anyone's fault but his own. And he seems to have lost interest completely in that bogus national security threat-- i.e., the caravan filled with ISIS terrorists carrying Ebola and leprosy. And he's ignoring those 6,000 props he sent done to the border the same way he's ignored veterans and active duty service men and women in all ways except hot air and bullshit. Is the Pentagon told them to return to their bases next week.



I've heard from one disgruntled White House official that everyone was relieved that all he did was call troops to the border to try to make an election point because what he really wanted to do was start a war somewhere, "one that would be easy to win." The compromise was that Trump-- who wanted "real soldiers" and not just National Guard units-- accepted that the Pentagon would make the technical support units they sent down into Texas "look like they were ready to fight," when the most aggressive thing any of them were prepared to do was lay some concertina wire.

In a NY Times OpEd Sunday-- Trump’s Border Stunt Is a Profound Betrayal of Our Military, Colonels Gordon Adams, Lawrence Wilkerson and Isaiah Wilson III wrote that the disgusting crooked lowlife "used America’s military forces not against any real threat but as toy soldiers, with the intent of manipulating a domestic midterm election outcome, an unprecedented use of the military by a sitting president... [T]his was a blatant political stunt. When partisan actions like this occur, they violate civil-military traditions and erode that faith, with potentially long-term damage to the morale of the force and our democratic practice-- all for electoral gain." They pointed out that-- like virtually everything the Trump regime does-- this was a dangerous precedent.

"The president crossed a line," they wrote. "The military is supposed to stay out of domestic politics. As many senior military retirees have argued, the forces are not and should not be a political instrument. They are not toy soldiers to be moved around by political leaders, but a neutral institution, politically speaking."

I spoke to quite a few members of Congress about this today, mostly Democrats, but a few Republicans as well. And everyone agreed-- Trump's a fuck-up. The only difference was that the Democrats said I could use their names and the Republicans said "out of the question." One told me I could use his... colorful reaction... in my memoir. I shall. Meanwhile, though, House Judiciary Committee superstars Pramila Jayapal (WA), Ted Lieu (CA) and Jamie Raskin (MD) all painted a shameful picture of the American presidency that is widely shared on Capitol Hill. Ted Lieu, an Air Force colonel, pointed out that "Our brave men and women in uniform-- and their families-- sacrifice far more than Donald Trump can ever comprehend. Those serving in our military already miss too many special occasions and holidays with their families. The idea that many will miss this Thanksgiving with their loved ones because of Trump's shameless political stunt at the border is disgraceful. I'd like to say this is the worst thing he has done as President, but sadly that wouldn't be true. The President owes these military families an apology."

Pramila Jayapal told me that Trump's "deployment of troops at our southern border is a blatant political ploy, a misuse of our military and quite literally, illegal. Furthermore, this administration has shamefully equated refugees and asylum seekers as threats that warrant a military response. This is a humanitarian crisis- consisting of men, women and children fleeing persecution and violence, not a national security crisis requiring military intervention at our border." Jamie Raskin is coming from a similar perspective. He said what everyone following this sordid episode is thinking: "Donald Trump couldn’t get the extravagant military parade and pageant he wanted in the capital city but he’s succeeded in wasting tens of millions of dollars using our service members as extras in a last-minute political campaign ad supporting his deranged fantasies about an armed invasion of our country. Someone needs to explain to him he’s not a King and he has no Royal Army to perform his ludicrous stunts." 

I also wanted a vision of this from the House Armed Services Committee. Ro Khanna, a member, takes this kind of thing very seriously. "Trump," Khanna told me, "continues to use the military for political propaganda. It’s sad that he is wasting our resources in manufactured controversies instead of making the investments in NIH, NSF, and DARPA that really would help keep America safe in the 21st century." Tom Suozzi is a real hard ass who, like Khanna, takes national security very, very seriously-- no fooling around on anything this important. He was in Afghanistan yesterday visiting American troops-- more than the joke of a cowardly Commander-in-Chief has ever done-- when he told me that Trump "has politicized the issue of immigration, stoking Americans’ worst fears and base instincts since day one." He went on...

The politicization of "the caravan" has now gone as far as to involve our armed services in a $100 million effort to militarize the border. While we are engaged in serious life and death military struggles throughout the world the president’s use of our armed services in this effort distracts our uniformed personnel from their legitimate and essential worldwide efforts.

We need a comprehensive immigration solution that secures our border with appropriate civilian personnel and respects the Dreamers, TPS recipients, asylum seekers and other long term, otherwise law abiding, undocumented persons seeking to live their American Dream. As a first generation American I urge my fellow Americans to remember the Promise of America, that all men and women are created equal, not just people with a green card or passport. Everyone is entitled to be treated with human respect and dignity. The militarization of our border is simply a bad policy that sends a bad message, misdirects essential personnel and resources, and threatens unintended consequences of military conflict with impoverished and desperate civilians.