“And it’s one, two, three
What are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn
Next stop is (Afghanistan)
And it’s five, six, seven
Open up the pearly gates
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why
Whoopee! We’re all gonna die”
— Country Joe and the Fish
I’m not sure why anybody would want to give Uncle Sam, or in this case Uncle Donald, a helping hand on the battlefield these days.
I mean, the commander in chief doesn’t exactly instill a lot of patriotism in most people. Would you want your kids laying their lives on the line for Donald Trump’s foreign policies?
I suppose one could ask the same questions of the Nixon/Vietnam era, Korea and all the other wars America has gotten itself involved with on foreign soil — and the presidents who served as commanders in chief at the time.
Still, people do enlist to this day, and I can’t explain what would inspire people to want to learn how to kill other humans in the trenches and so on. But to each their own . . . I’m a 1960s/1970s/1980s/1990s/2000s/2010s flower child, as in Make Love. Not war . . .
So, in a way, I’m thinking Donald Trump and his cohorts may be be doing transgender people a favour by barring them from joining the U.S. military and killing people on the battlefields of foreign countries.
But I know that a lot of trans people feel they should have the right to travel to foreign countries with the U.S. military and kill people.
And, hey, if other Americans are allowed to do it, trans people should be allowed to do it, too.
I’m reserving comment, though, on the ban announced by Trump on Twitter today saying that transgender people will not be allowed to serve in the military in any capacity.
I need clarity, because it is obvious that Trump’s announcement took the Pentagon by surprise. Does the ban apply only to people who are beginning to medically transition or are in the process of transitioning? Or does it apply to fully transitioned individuals as well?
The New York Times is quoting people saying this is a money issue, that the U.S. military doesn’t want to pay the costs associated with gender transitioning? If this is true, then fully transitioned people should be allowed to serve.
We’ll get clarity on all of this in the days to come, I’m sure. I suspect that Trump tweeted it as a trial balloon, and that we will see some back-peddling by the White House.
Note: I slightly altered Country Joe’s “Vietnam” song in the excerpt at the beginning by substituting the word “Vietnam” with “(Afghanistan)” to make it more current.
— Jillian
Photo: Donald Trump. (Credit: Marc Nozell/Wikimedia Commons)
Jillian Page 
There’s an old adage, a crude adage, but an apt adage. If I saw Donald Trump on fire on the other side of the street, I wouldn’t cross over to piss on him to put the fire out.
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I was about to reply to one of your earlier posts about wifi, saying I wish internet service were cut to one particular location, but it would need to be a rolling outage, (wherever Trump happens to be.)
As you say, it’s uncertain the specifics of this asinine policy switch, as Trump discussed it with the Pentagon in recent days, but gave no warning he was going public with it, now. And, he did so while the Sectetary of Defense is on vacation. (Why anyone in his administration feels any sense of loyalty to him is a real puzzle. He will under-cut and betray any of them, just to “change the discussion,” when he’s in trouble, like he is with the health care(less) debacle, or insulting his Attorney General.)
One of these days, though, this guy is going to kill some people with his careless twittering…..
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We really do know so little about War. And the past wrt to the long battles “humanity” has fought for whatever the reason($,territory,sovereignty,religion,,). But I suspect that LGBT issues were just as prevalent throughout. And wrt homophobic reaction(s) just as non-tolerated or perhaps, and in all probability, tolerated. The animal kingdom exhibits the behaviour and manifests it with little regard to whether it is “acceptable” or not. But for the “paragon of animals” I suppose it will forever remain a thorn or an Achilles Heel. “alas poor Yorick, I knew him” %|
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Don’t know if this has made headlines north of the border, New York Times demanding apology from Fox News for spreading Trump’s falsities against the Times as if fact based. It’s an interesting 17 min. radio discussion on NPR from Wednesday.
Listen to “The Demonization Of The Press” on WBUR.
http://wbur.fm/2uXFNlL
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(*Pats her on her blond flower child head* “Yes, yes, of course you are.” Okay, now that I got that out of my system, on to serious commentary):
There are many valid reasons for serving in the military. You might recall I did it for a year or two, or thirty two, myself. There are also valid reasons for going to war, and yes, therefore killing people and breaking things. (Consider some of your own comments on ISIS.) That having been said, the military services the nation, not to any one person, commander-in-chief or no. That’s important to remember.
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Trump is the commander in commander in chief. Why anyone would want to serve under him is beyond me. I wouldn’t be surprised if half of the armed forced resign.
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You are entirely missing the point. One serves the nation, which is non-material and enduring. Not the CINC, who is just a person and transient. One might prefer a different CINC, but focus on the big picture.
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“We’ll get clarity on all of this in the days to come, I’m sure. I suspect that Trump tweeted it as a trial balloon, and that we will see some back-peddling by the White House.”
LOL!!! Best guffaw all day.
Your statement assumes that Trump knows what he is doing. ROTFL
“President” “Trump” – two words that together define oxymoron.
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Very interestingly, the U.S. Military spends five times as much on Viagra, as they spend on the expenses for transgender issues. So much for Trump’s claim of fiscal necessity for his asinine policy switch.
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