Where is the Empathy?
Talk about the fallen not use the fallen family members as your therapist.
On the 26th of August, the POTUS addressed the nation, in an effort to speak of the 13 Service Members that had died bravely in Kabul. This was a moment where America was glued to the TV in anticipation to see what the POTUS will actually say. Would he give us words that were meaningless, or would he give us words that had meat behind them?
There was a time in my military career I had served as a Rear Detachment Sergeant Major for a Brigade that was forward deployed. Preparing for this job, I had to go through some serious training in dealing with casualty assistance that way I would be there for our Brigades families at their worst times of their lives. One of the things that was taught, was during the immediate time of grief is not the time to compare stories of losing loved ones. Because at that very moment, it does not matter to those families. They simply miss their families.
It is apparent that the Commander in Chief never had that training. He went on the national stage and made it about the loss of his son, who passed away over 6 years ago from brain cancer, not in battle. He used that moment as a way, to try in some crazy way, to connect with the families who lost their loved ones in battle off a decision he made. It also did it again when talking with the families at the Dignified Transfer of Remains at Dover, according to two families. To top that off, he had to look at his watch, as if he was burdened to be there.
Now I feel no family should ever bury their children. That is not the way it is meant to be. I feel for Joe on that, but this was definitely not the time or the place whatsoever for that. As we can see on TV it was not received well either. It should have all been about the family. This should have not been about his son. It definitely should not have been about some lame stats to justify his blunder. Lastly there should not have been any finger pointing. For Christ Sakes, he is the President, not some school kid that got in trouble, own it man!
This was a moment that should have been short and brief. Explain how much we care about those families, maybe even name them each by their first names, tell us about them, tell the families we will spare no expense to ensure their brave sons and daughters are brought back home with honor. Then simply explain how we will eradicate the enemy. Look a General in the eye and say on National TV, “go do whatever it takes, we will spare no expense.” Then walk off the stage. That was all that was needed. As we know that is not what we got.
So, what did we get? We got 13 families that will never see their loved ones again. We got 13 families that were expecting their brave Service Members home in a few days, whose lives are now destroyed (that is an understatement). That is 13 families will never have the same joy of the holidays, birthdays, ceremonies, and simply eating together again. The list will go on and on. Nothing on the list is good. There is no consolation for this. All of this so we could have a commemoration moment for the POTUS.
If we remember the beginning of this on September 11, 2001, we lost 2996 Americans when 19 terrorists committed their horrible acts on that day. This was the act that brought us to Afghanistan. Now we recently lost 13 American Service Members as we were preparing to get people out of Afghanistan. In retaliation we conducted a drone strike on an ISIS-K planner and his sidekick. We took two people out. To this day, we still do not know the name of the planner! So, was it a planner or not? Because prior to this we didn’t have good intelligence but now we do? This makes no sense.
I will say I feel let down by this. I was expecting the POTUS to say, at this moment we are eradicating the ISIS-K. We lost 13 Service Members and we kill (supposedly) 2 no name terrorists. Really!!!! I am expecting that for any single American that dies that we are talking at least 100 bad guys are not seeing the next morning. That is my expectation. I will say, talking to my Veteran friends, we are all seeing eye to eye in this.
Does the President not understand the enemy? They have no issues of one of their own dying. They will replace him so quick; it is truly crazy. Now you take out 100 of their fighters in one shot without blinking an eye, that is different. They see a ton of recruitment and training vanishing immediately. This also deters their recruiting efforts. That is how you deal with terrorists.
This leads me to, why is our President so afraid to use our forces for what they are designed for? I got it he screwed up in a monumental way. The history books will say exactly that. We will probably in the future even say, “whatever you do don’t go Biden it up!” That will become a saying for now on. But my gosh, somewhere in there can we make one logical military decision that asserts some form of dominance instead of tucking our tail between our legs and cowering off?
I believe our 13 brave Service Members should have never been put in the situation by the POTUS bad decision. Since that happened, the POTUS could have at least made it about them and not himself. I know those 13 families deserve better than this. The 13 Service Members deserved way better than this. Our military and our Veterans deserve better than this. Frankly, America Deserves Better than this.
The Vet
Originally published at https://shop.thecoachandthevet.com on September 1, 2021.
