How Trump Changed the Topic to Obama's Consolation Calls

[babylonsister]

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/how-trump-commandeered-the-news-cycle/543153/

How Trump Changed the Topic to Obama's Consolation Calls

Instead of explaining to Americans why four soldiers were killed in Niger, the president commandeered the news cycle, focusing on a narrow and unrelated claim.
David A. Graham 2:27 PM ET Politics



snip//

Trump’s claim that some presidents “didn’t do anything” appears to be bogus, but there’s also no indication that Obama called the family of every soldier, sailor, marine, or airman who died during his presidency (nor, for that matter, that Trump has done so). In anti-Trump precincts, there was immediate fury—first, that he had claimed that some presidents didn’t reach out to families at all, and second, that he’d turned the question of slain soldiers into a matter of oneupmanship with other presidents. Four Americans were dead, the president had golfed rather that attend the return of their coffins, and now here he was making it a political matter.

But by inspiring that immediate fury, Trump had already shifted the conversation away from the question of why the troops were in Niger, and away from the question of why Trump had said nothing about their deaths until asked. Then on Tuesday morning, he picked up on the grain of truth in his original statement—Obama had not called the family of every slain soldier—and pushed it forward.

snip//

CNN reports that almost two weeks after the deadly firefight, the Pentagon still doesn’t understand what happened, and is conducting a preliminary review to see whether there should be a formal investigation and whether military procedures need to be changed. The president of the United States has made no comment on the deaths of four soldiers except to exculpate himself. Beyond that, a president who promised to pull the United States back from its engagements around the globe hasn’t made any statement to the American people about why Special Forces soldiers were in Niger, why they were out on patrol despite their advisory role, who was responsible for their deaths, or why it’s important for U.S. troops to be in West Africa.

Trump is eager to talk about the troops when he is accusing NFL players of disrespecting them by kneeling during the National Anthem. But conversations about what American troops are doing in places like Niger and why are complicated, difficult, and uncomfortable for Trump and everyone else involved. It’s much easier to snipe about which president’s consolations were most patriotic than to actually talk about the troops as anything more than a signifier.

[Lucinda]

1. KNR

[Irish_Dem]

2. Standard con artist behavior when caught doing wrong: blame others. Change the topic.

He is really good at this.

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. Our military now is under different rules, rules they have never been under.

Trump literally does not care, at all, about the lives of the military so they are now forced to do shit they never had to do so he can get a win.

Several months ago there were dozens of civilians killed and Americans killed because of this.

He is a vile, disgusting pile of human shit.