To say that the media lies is like saying the sun comes up in the morning. Americans were treated to another faux scandal courtesy of the media at the end of last week. The Atlantic published a piece claiming that PDJT disparaged the intelligence of military members and, in other ways, denigrated them. No validation of these claims is provided. In fact, the editor of The Atlantic recently conceded that the central claim of the piece may be wrong.
It is sad to see the depths that some will go to in an attempt to win an election. Patently false stories come out and get their 15 minutes of fame. Nancy Pelosi would call this the wrap-up smear. Pelosi described it on camera in 2017.
“We call it the ‘wrap-up smear.’ You smear somebody, with falsehoods and all the rest, and then you merchandise it.
“And then you write it, and then they’ll say ‘See? It’s reported in the press that this, this, this and this,’ so they have that validation that the press reported the smear, and then it’s called the ‘wrap-up smear.’ Now I’m going to merchandise the press’s report on the smear that we made.”
Now to claim that only one party engages in this kind of tactic would be naïve. However, based on the press coverage of this smear of PDJT, the piece by The Atlantic fits very well within the definition provided by Pelosi.
An elder statesman whom I know had this to say,
“In my 80 years on this planet I have never seen the Democrat party like it is today!!! There seems to be no limit as to how far they will go to lie about, scheme to demonize, and refer to “anonymous sources” with totally false accusations about President Donald Trump and anybody closely associated with him.”
This hit piece did not sit well with some of our military. One, in particular, was retired US Army Major General Patrick Brady, a Medal of Honor winner.
Brady’s Medal of Honor citation reads:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty, Maj. BRADY distinguished himself while serving in the Republic of Vietnam commanding a UH-1H ambulance helicopter, volunteered to rescue wounded men from a site in enemy held territory which was reported to be heavily defended and to be blanketed by fog. To reach the site he descended through heavy fog and smoke and hovered slowly along a valley trail, turning his ship sideward to blow away the fog with the backwash from his rotor blades. Despite the unchallenged, close-range enemy fire, he found the dangerously small site, where he successfully landed and evacuated 2 badly wounded South Vietnamese soldiers. He was then called to another area completely covered by dense fog where American casualties lay only 50 meters from the enemy. Two aircraft had previously been shot down and others had made unsuccessful attempts to reach this site earlier in the day. With unmatched skill and extraordinary courage, Maj. BRADY made 4 flights to this embattled landing zone and successfully rescued all the wounded. On his third mission of the day Maj. Brady once again landed at a site surrounded by the enemy. The friendly ground force, pinned down by enemy fire, had been unable to reach and secure the landing zone. Although his aircraft had been badly damaged and his controls partially shot away during his initial entry into this area, he returned minutes later and rescued the remaining injured. Shortly thereafter, obtaining a replacement aircraft, Maj. BRADY was requested to land in an enemy minefield where a platoon of American soldiers was trapped. A mine detonated near his helicopter, wounding 2 crew members and damaging his ship. In spite of this, he managed to fly 6 severely injured patients to medical aid. Throughout that day Maj. BRADY utilized 3 helicopters to evacuate a total of 51 seriously wounded men, many of whom would have perished without prompt medical treatment. Maj. BRADY’S bravery was in the highest traditions of the military service and reflects great credit upon himself and the U.S. Army.
To say that Brady was incensed about The Atlantic article would understate the case by orders of magnitude. Major General Brady penned the following rebuttal.
It has been said that the only difference between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives. The latest media lies about Trump – that he called America’s warriors losers and suckers – will soon fade as the media learns that our veterans are not only not losers and suckers, they are not stupid. They see this calumny for what it is, an effort to influence Trump’s strongest supporters and America’s most admired cohort – our veterans and our military.
Veterans are not influenced by what the enemy, our dishonest media, says our president said, but only by what he has actually done. I am amazed that anyone would give this lie a second’s notice. Has anyone heard of a VA scandal under Trump? Or a hollow, feckless military under Trump? Both were routine during Obama/Biden (O-Biden).
Veterans are bottom-line people, much like our president. Unfortunately, we have a media-driven memory, so let’s go back and look at the bottom line between Trump and our veterans – not what he is accused of saying, which his accusers know is unprovable, but what he has done.
During Obama/Biden, endless queues to VA care were virtual death sentences. Some VA employees disrespectful, even hostile, to our veterans were un-fireable. Both are gone.
Many veterans remember carpooling their buddies past civilian health care centers to reach the nearest VA facility often many miles away. Veterans’ care in those nearby civilian medical facilities was thought undoable and had been for years. Now, because of Trump, at-hand health care facilities are available and saving lives.
Trump extended GI Bill benefits from 15 years to life, and ordered that student debt for totally disabled veterans be forgiven.
President Trump’s bottom line on VA spending is a record strongly focused on mental health and suicide prevention. And, unlike so much federal spending, Trump’s has resulted in record low veteran unemployment, 2.5% at one point; it averaged 6.6% under O-Biden.
Few Americans are as focused on our security as our veterans; they have skin in the game – some much more than skin. I was part of Jimmy Carter’s notorious “hollow military” (remember Desert One) which was a grave threat to the safety of our people. O-Biden took us beyond hollow. In my eight decades as an American, and 35 years of service, I never saw as impotent a military as the one fielded by O-Biden.
Do you remember ISIS and the O-Biden Caliphate? And the ridiculous rules of engagement? And the atrocities against Christians and helpless citizens? The public beheadings? The human incinerations? All this was rampant during O-Biden leadership and readiness. Trump quickly eliminated the caliphate, and we hear little of ISIS today.
Ronald Reagan took us out of Carter’s hollow military and Donald Trump has done the same for the beyond hollow military of O-Biden.
O-Biden actually funded – specifically billions to Iran, the premier sponsor of terrorism in the world – terrorists who kill our soldiers; and in an amazing display of disrespect to our warriors, traded an American traitor for terrorists. Unlike Biden’s left, no veteran I know was distraught by Trump’s execution of the two premier terrorists in the world.
Veterans have seen, side by side with freedom, the evils of socialism, communism, totalitarianism and terrorism in Germany, Korea and across the world. They realize that Biden is a puppet in the hands of those who seek to impose those disastrous systems on America.
Biden supported a president who loathed the military. He worked for a president who did not know the difference between a corps and a corpse, who invented the term “leading from behind,” the greatest oxymoron of all time. Forget what this guy says, what has he done for veterans or for the military in half a century on the public teat.
The media has painted Trump as a four-letter word, actually he is J-O-B-S. Biden is a two-letter word, B-S. Biden boasts about what he will do, but he didn’t do in half a century; Trump boasts about what he has already done, and therefore can do again.
In the face of unprecedented riots and thuggery, when law enforcement is stretched to its limits and our people’s safety is at risk, Biden’s left wants to eliminate the police, our only source of law enforcement and safety. Who in the hell can explain such lunacy?
The one thing veterans understand above all else is leadership. They have a strict criterion for judging people: Would I want this person with me in combat, or as commander in chief?
Would anyone out there want Joe Biden with them in combat? Or in any crisis? In his condition? Who could believe, based on actual track records, that Biden cares more about veterans and our military than Trump, that Biden is qualified to be a leader, our commander in chief? Come on, man!
It is time for us to ignore the scurrilous lies of unnamed sources and focus on the evil of these media people. As a former spokesman for the Army, I can say we taught our media personnel that at the source of the unnamed source was a coward. Most people don’t like to be named as cowards, and that is why these people are unnamed.
As children we were taught that our most precious possession was our good name. And a most grievous evil was to defame, to commit calumny or slander, against the good name of another person. In fact, we were warned not to even tell the truth of another’s faults, or sins, without sufficient cause. In either case, we were required to make restitution. One of God’s Big Ten is the admonition to never bear false witness against our neighbors. Bearing false witness has become the raison d’être of today’s media. Surely they will pay a price for this one day.
I was honored to serve my country in uniform for 35 years during which I flew over 2,500 combat missions and helped rescue over 5,000 wounded men, women, children – enemy as well as friendly. I dearly loved that country I served.
It was the country of President Trump, an America that respects our flag, our Constitution and our heritage, loves our military, our police, our God and life, that is dedicated to the security of our borders and our people. For that America, for Trump’s America, I would gladly give my life.
For Joe Biden’s America, an America that burns Old Glory, despises our heritage and our Constitution, hates our police, burns our churches, would kill a baby on its birthday, weakens our military and demeans the security of our country, our people and our cities, while taking our guns – for Joe Biden’s America, I would not give one drop of my blood.
To paraphrase: The media demons whisper to the Trump warriors, you cannot withstand the storm. And the warriors whisper back, we are the storm. Stand by for a monumental ass kicking.
I agree with Major General Brady. I would welcome President Trump in my foxhole any time. And I pray to God that Brady is right about an ass kicking looming.