Connie Schultz: The Valor of Ambassador Taylor

[babylonsister]

https://www.creators.com/read/connie-schultz/11/19/the-valor-of-ambassador-taylor?fbclid=IwAR05o5iWLNJMy96_AMlF_SQAKWDDjXsKOgLYo7BWdY0WuvOkZAn1_YpDn60

The Valor of Ambassador Taylor
By Connie Schultz
November 14, 2019 5 min read


snip//

More than a dozen times, Trump retweeted Republican posts about the hearing, including this one by Rep. Matt Gaetz, who shared a video clip of an exchange between ever-dignified Taylor and tactless, coatless Jim Jordan with this caption: "Their star witness knows nothing."

So, when you're top 1% of your class at West Point, you probably get your pick of assignments. But you picked the infantry.

I did, sir. Yes, sir.

What a contrast to the man at the heart of these impeachment hearings.

My mind raced with memories as I watched Taylor's testimony about his service in Vietnam.

I thought of my home county in northeast Ohio, full of working-class boys and farm boys who had no college deferments. Twenty-six of them died. Countless others returned forever changed.

I thought of Donald Trump's five deferments, too — four of them as a student, another because of his alleged bone spurs — and how he once bragged to Howard Stern about avoiding venereal disease from his many sexual encounters.

"I've been so lucky in terms of that whole world," Trump said. "It is a dangerous world out there — it's scary, like Vietnam. Sort of like the Vietnam era. It is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave solider."

Shortly after Taylor completed his testimony, a reporter asked Trump for his impression of the hearing as he stood next to the president of Turkey.

"Are you talkin' about the witch hunt, is that what you mean? Is that what you're talkin' about?" Trump said. "I hear it's a joke. I haven't watched. I haven't watched for a minute. ... This is a sham and shouldn't be allowed. ... I want to find out who is the whistleblower."

"I hear it's a hoax," he added, "and it's being played as a hoax."

I was awarded the combat infantryman's badge, which is my highest, I'm proudest of. There was a bronze star. There was an air medal with V.

That's for valor, isn't it, sir?

It is.

It most certainly is.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

1. Cadet Bone Spurs and his pet Gaetz are unfit

[gibraltar72]

2. For Gaetz it was his second DUI of which he was most proud.