“That man doesn’t deserve to have been the commander in chief for my son, my uncle,” he said, referring to Beau Biden and Ambrose Finnegan, who both served in the military
President Joe Biden choked up Wednesday talking about the military service of his family members and former President Donald Trump’s disparaging remarks about service members.
“They asked [Trump] to go visit American gravesites. He said, ‘No.’ He wouldn’t do it. Because they were all ‘suckers’ and ‘losers,’” Biden told a crowd of union workers. “I’m not making that up. The staff who were with him acknowledge it today. Suckers and losers.”
He paused for a moment and added, “That man doesn’t deserve to have been the commander in chief for my son, my uncle.” Beau Biden and Ambrose Finnegan both served in the military before Trump took office.
Biden’s comments referred to Trump’s 2018 trip to Paris for the centennial of the end of World War I, when he declined to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and reportedly called Marines who died at Belleau Wood “suckers” and fallen soldiers at the U.S. cemetery “losers.”
As you have demonstrated, anyone is susceptible to misunderstanding. It does not discriminate by class or privilege. People join for many reasons. I wanted to get a warm meal, warm bed, and die. But others from my meps felt that they had familial or generational obligations. Some wanted the career and had great options. It’s a fantastic and debt free way of getting respectable credentials and high-speed to boot. But I don’t know a single person who honestly believed they were supporting genocide or imperialism, what have you. There were a lot of dumb people, but they risked it for their own reasons in a way you never could or likely ever will. And I will always cry for those that gave it all. Some of us are dealing with our guilt and doing what we can to prepare the next generation for the pitfalls they face. So spit at us all you want. There’s not thing one you can say that will make me loath myself more than I ever have. And I’m dealing with that too.
I hope you are never in a place that makes you tangibly consider these choices you so virulently despise. You are still someone’s compatriot and you deserve that.
I’ve had my reasons for doing dumb things, but that doesn’t mean those weren’t dumb things to do. Regardless, it’s not an act that should be glorified. The US military’s primary role is to protect corporate interests, to the misery of many, including those that serve that machine. Biden is trying to score political points using the death of his son and by glorifying the position of commander in chief, a position that he is currently using to authorize support for genocide.
I’m not refuting this. I’m pointing out that this isn’t remotely obvious to let alone the motivation for why people join. You are privileged enough to be aware of this. Not everyone has the luxury of your perspective.