Angered by invite to wounded soldier: "Nobody wants to see that"

[struggle4progress]

By TATYANA TANDANPOLIE
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 21, 2023 1:34PM (EDT)

... Milley had chosen Army captain Luis Avila, who is severely wounded after serving in five combat tours, to sing "God Bless America" at the 2019 Armed Forces Welcome Ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall because, to him and several other Army generals, Avila represented the dignity, strength and sacrifice of wounded soldiers. Avila had lost a leg in an IED attack while serving in Afghanistan in 2011 and suffered two strokes, two heart attacks and brain damage as a result of his injuries.

After Trump went over to congratulate the captain for his performance, the then-president asked Milley, who as JCS chairman served as Trump's principal military adviser, within earshot of others, "Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded." He also told Milley to never let Avila make a public appearance again. "These sorts of moments, which would grow in intensity and velocity, were disturbing to Milley. As a veteran of multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he had buried 242 soldiers who'd served under his command," The Atlantic's Jeffery Goldberg writes. "Milley's family venerated the military, and Trump's attitude toward the uniformed services seemed superficial, callous, and, at the deepest human level, repugnant" ...

https://www.salon.com/2023/09/21/us-general-says-was-angered-by-invite-to-wounded-soldier-nobody-wants-to-see-that/

[struggle4progress]

1. Reported disgust with wounded veteran sparks fury

BY KATHERINE FUNG ON 9/21/23 AT 2:19 PM EDT

... "There is no nice way to put it. P01135809 is pure scum," conservative attorney and vocal Trump critic George Conway said on X, formerly Twitter. P01135809 was Trump's inmate number when he was booked at Fulton County Jail last month.

The anecdote included in the story describes how Trump reacted to the severely wounded Army captain whom Milley selected to sing God Bless America at his 2019 welcome ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall. Luis Avila, who served five combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, was left almost completely paralyzed by the detonation of an improvised explosive device in 2011 ...

"Trump's loathing for an injured war hero speaks more volumes about his low, repulsive character than almost any of the other stories of his public or private behavior," Republican political strategist and Trump critic Rick Wilson wrote on X. "I've read damn near every account of his degenerate, foul life, and this one still shocks" ...

https://www.newsweek.com/trumps-reported-disgust-wounded-veteran-sparks-fury-pure-scum-1828949

[SpamWyzer]

7. P01135809

did use Capt. Avila in 2 photo-ops. One with the tub of lard and the other with his forlorn concubinewife Melanomie. All hugs and kisses to the Avilas then. Makes me ill to see the images...

[malaise]

14. Effin evil scum

That is all

[localroger]

2. He thinks anybody who has to wear a uniform is a sucker

...even his own generals and top brass. He doesn't see the use of the military because he can't make money off it, because they don't buy his luxury fantasy bullshit and take what he considers piffle pay to do hard work, experience much unpleasantness, and get shot at. He is proud that he bone spurred the risk of being forced into it himself during Vietnam.

[keithbvadu2]

5. "I feel like a great and very brave soldier"

"I feel like a great and very brave soldier"

[KS Toronado]

21. As many times as MSM needs to show us P01135809's picture

they should use something similar to yours above, something unflattering that shows the depravity of his soul.

[viva la]

3. Trump makes me nauseous.

He's the worst person in every way. I was going to say, short of physical violence, but of course he is violent towards women.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. TFG's loathing for an injured war hero speaks more volumes about his low, repulsive character

Link to tweet

[calimary]

20. I don't know what I feel more: anger, sadness, embarrassment, frustration, outrage, shock, shame...

Everything everywhere all at once.

[Yavin4]

6. He's truly one of the worst human beings to walk on the face of the earth.

Just a horrible, horrible person.

[DENVERPOPS]

8. Loathsome, Sub-human pieces of excrement.......

Chicken Shits were what the Draft Dodger loudmouths were called during the Vietnam Era.......

[Takket]

9. if a Democrat serving as trash comissioner in some poduck town ever said something like this...

every single person in America would know their name.

No president has ever showed such complete and total disdain for the military, and no one in the media calls him out for it. I bet he'll never even be asked about it.

[Jakes Progress]

10. We need to make sure that every veteran

reads this. If they still support trump, there is no hope for their soul.

[BOSSHOG]

18. I'm a veteran. I know of Donald trump

I love my country, proud of my service, inconsequential as it was. I would support trump out of the car and into the penitentiary. Hitler. Trump. No difference. Except to trumps “shame” hitler was more “successful.”

[Solly Mack]

11. The wounded and the dead represent the truth about war. Trump isn't about truth.

He's about the optics. Wounded and dead troops make for bad optics if your desired goal is to present a narrative of hardy, healthy strong bodies who look like they are ready to fight.

If your narrative is the reality of war, show the dead and the wounded, as well as the families torn apart. The destruction of infrastructure and homes. A host of other horrible things.

If your narrative is America is number 1, we are the winners, no one is better, blah blah blah, then you stage the photo-op with actors dressed as troops. None of them looking wounded.

For Trump, the wounded are weak. He wants only what he defines as strength.

Of course, he's wrong. He always is.

[LudwigPastorius]

12. "I don't get it."

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-questioned-kellys-sons-sacrifice-on-memorial-day-grave-visit-2020-9

[Orrex]

13. I often encounter hardcore Trump kkkultists online who are veterans

I know that they're veterans because they begin every rebuttal with "if you'd served your country you'd understand," etc. They love to howl about Jane Fonda, for example.

Once they open that door, I remind them that their support of Trump dishonors their own service and that of other veterans and service personnel.

They usually offer some bullshit about Biden "fucking up Afghanistan," or the like, and I point out that their sacred orange prolapse routinely shits on members of the military, their families, and the fallen. He loves the military, but only as an abstract concept or as props for his own flaccid dictatorship.

But because they bow down, mouths blissfully agape between his cheeks, they ignore reality and continue to worship him.

[keithbvadu2]

26. 'He loves the military, but only as an abstract concept or as props...'

[kairos12]

15. He called the dead of WW1

suckers and losers.

He's beyond vile trash.

[bahboo]

16. just die already, you piece of shit.....

[musclecar6]

17. During

Vietnam, if physically able, and you were called to serve ( got drafted), you had two choices. Get drafted or enlist. What you did NOT do, was use a bogus bone spurs claim to dodge the draft, like the despicable National Disgrace did.

What is beyond despicable, if you were a bone spurs coward, is have the audacity to denigrate John McCain, Luis Avila and millions of others who raised their hand to serve their country.

He should hang his head in shame and the whole country should turn their back on him.

[alimbalt]

22. Your last sentance just needs a period...

...after the word 'hang' and delete the rest.

[calimary]

19. donald is BEYOND schmuck.

What a walking talking disgrace. Well, at least my conscience is clean at least on this: I never voted for him. And I never WILL vote for him. Not EVER. No matter what he says. Besides, you can't believe a single word he says, anyway. Total worthlessness.

[VGNonly]

23. With the Marines at Tarawa

was a documentary film of the battle. There was considerable discussion on whether to release it to the American public. The president was in favor. Some military leaders opposed the film, as did Hollywood. Robert Sherrod, a Time-Life photographer and war correspondent was present at the battle. He was also a friend and confidant of FDR. Sherrod wanted it to be out there, stating that war is a bloody mess, that many did not survive, that we didn't always knock the "hell" out of the enemy. Roosevelt had the film released.

Now we have jingoistic, chickenhawk, bombastic, coward, bone spur TFG who finds the depiction of war and veterans unsettling....

[iluvtennis]

24. tfg is DEPLORABLE. He disparaged John McCain,

called WW I soldiers horrible names, and now we learn from Milley how he spoke so negatively of this war hero. I so hate tfg. Karma is coming for his evil ass.

[keithbvadu2]

27. Trump disparaged ALL POWs.

Trump: "He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured"

[Aviation Pro]

25. Motherfucker loves him some Eddie Gallagher though

Psychopaths make the five deferment poser jizz.

[live love laugh]

28. Bushco hid caskets so what's the difference? Typical Republicanism.