One of the perverse features of Donald Trump’s malignant narcissism is the shameless way he engages in projection. As I observed during the campaign:
The psychopathology afoot here is called projection. It is defined by people attributing to others traits, faults, and blame that inhere in themselves. And it explains almost every insult Trump has hurled at his opponents throughout this presidential campaign.
So when you hear him calling other people crooked, insecure, weak, beholden to special interests, liars, etc., be mindful that he’s just revealing self-conscious truths about himself, dimwittedly.
(“Forget the Clinton Foundation. Shut Down the Trump Organization!” The iPINIONS Journal, August 26, 2016)
This glaring mental defect is just one of many reasons I felt compelled to write “WTF! President-elect Donald J. Trump?! America. What. Have. You. Done.” on November 9, 2016.
As it turned out, Trump directed the most outrageous manifestation of his projection during the 2016 campaign at no less a figure than Senator John McCain (R-AZ).
He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.
(Chicago Tribune, July 18, 2015)
In other words, just as projection compels Trump to call people liars to deflect from the fact that he’s a pathological liar, it compelled him to call McCain a loser and “no war hero” to deflect from the fact that he’s a loser who dodged the Draft.
After he graduated from college in the spring of 1968, making him eligible to be drafted and sent to Vietnam, he received a diagnosis that would change his path: bone spurs in his heels. The diagnosis resulted in a coveted 1-Y medical deferment that fall, exempting him from military service as the United States was undertaking huge troop deployments to Southeast Asia, inducting about 300,000 men into the military that year.
The deferment was one of five Mr. Trump received during Vietnam.
(New York Times, August 1, 2016)
This, of course, is the same Trump who has boasted about
- getting better training for war at his high school military academy than draftees got at boot camp; and
- being a jock of all sports.
Indeed, by all accounts, Trump was such a picture of health, he could’ve served as the poster boy for Vietnam Draft dodgers.
Therefore, it’s hardly surprising that McCain seized a recent opportunity to puncture Trump’s self-inflated ego. It came during an interview for a retrospective titled “Vietnam War: 50 Years Later”:
One aspect of the conflict, by the way, that I will never ever countenance is that we drafted the lowest-income level of America, and the highest-income level found a doctor that would say that they had a bone spur. That is wrong. That is wrong. If we are going to ask every American to serve, every American should serve.
(C-SPAN3, October 18, 2017)
Ouch!
Except that the sociopathic Trump has no shame or feelings. Only this explains his trolling of the grieving widow of another bona fide war hero, Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed in Niger just weeks ago.
That said, it’s far more socially redeeming to note that McCain believes the current volunteer system is better than the Vietnam-era Draft. I disagree. Not least because poor whites and minorities still make up the vast majority of the 1.3 million Americans serving in today’s armed forces.
Significantly, those serving amount to only 0.4 percent of the population. This is part of the reason I’ve long been in the vanguard of those calling on Congress to reinstate the Draft:
I am merely proffering the self-evident truth that politicians would be more circumspect about sending Americans to war if their loved ones were obligated to serve.
Meanwhile, generals are complaining that they do not have enough troops to execute their missions; volunteers are being forced to endure extended tours of duty; and recruitment is so anemic that the military is lowering its (physical and educational) standards for enlistment to fill its ranks (promoting 42-year-old mothers as lean, mean fighting machines?).
(“Support the Draft to Prevent Stupid Wars,” The iPINIONS Journal, March 14, 2007)
Accordingly, nobody should be surprised that so many members of Congress are now blithely admitting they had no idea the United States even had troops deployed in Niger. In fact, if pressed, most would probably have to admit being clueless about this too:
On any given day, the operators are deployed across about [53] nations [in Africa]. … According to a report to Congress by General Thomas Waldhauser, who heads the US Africa Command, American forces have a notable presence in Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Sudan, Rwanda and Kenya.
Officially, the United States only has one military base in Africa — Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti.
(Agence-France Presse, October 21, 2017)
On the other hand, anyone with even a passing interest in Africa’s welfare, or who knows a US soldier deployed there, would have known about these missions. I not only knew, iPINIONS hailed them:
When Bush launched the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) — America’s first military mission focused on Sub-Saharan Africa — he insisted that ‘AFRICOM will enhance our efforts to bring peace and security to the people of Africa and promote goals of development, health, education, democracy and economic growth.’ …
Bush is only seeking to use AFRICOM in Africa the way his predecessors have used NATO in Europe since World War II, namely, as a stabilizing force for regional security, development, diplomacy and prosperity.
(“AFRICOM: No Good Bush Deed Goes Unpunished,” The iPINIONS Journal, October 10, 2008)
More to the point, though, just imagine the damning disconnect in this prevailing ignorance among members of Congress — not just about who serves, but where they’re deployed.
In any event, given the lessons of Vietnam, a reinstated Draft should allow no deferments for any reason whatsoever. After all, even if a draftee has bone spurs, he or she could still serve in any number of non-combat roles, from administration and finance to transportation, maintenance, and catering.
In fact, the Army Corps of Engineers’ ongoing relief mission in Puerto Rico has demonstrated in spades the need for truck drivers.
Related commentaries:
WTF! Trump president-elect…
Sgt. La David Johnson…
Forget the Clinton Foundation…
Support the draft…
AFRICOM…
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