In 2000, the first election I was old enough to vote in, I thought Colin Powell should have run for president even though I am a Democrat. I fought in Afghanistan and Iraq as a Marine infantryman between 2002 and 2006. From 2011 to 2013, I worked for a Republican U.S. senator. And, during this year’s primary contest, I understood and respected former Secretary of the Navy and Sen. Jim Webb because of our common service as U.S. Marines.
In 2004, Webb and his son visited my platoon in Afghanistan. His daughter was dating a fellow Marine, and Webb later wrote about the hardships of his absence, “We cannot allow ourselves to feel unique in these emotions. Indeed, they are being repeated a hundred thousand times over, every day, among those who have been sent into harm’s way. My only wish is that the rest of America might somehow comprehend their depth and their intensity.”
Most Americans don’t understand what service members experience at war for this country. They don’t understand because less than one percent of them volunteer to fight in them.
We need leaders who will take the time to understand the depth and the intensity of the emotions that soldiers and families experience when our nation goes to war. More importantly, we need a leader who has deep respect for the sacrifice of the men and women who give their lives in service, and empathy for the pain of their families.
I’m confident that Hillary Clinton has that respect and empathy. I’m also confident that she would bring America’s full diplomatic-political and military power to bear in an increasingly unstable world.
I have no such confidence in Donald Trump. Trump isn’t fit to lead our military men and women. First he called our military a disaster. He says that America had never lost a war but that “now we never win. We don’t win with our military.” Trump throws service members under the bus without consideration of how America consistently asks them to accomplish militarily impossible outcomes to make up for failures in leadership.
Then he announced that Sen. John McCain was no war hero and ridiculed him for being a prisoner of war. McCain’s jet was shot down over enemy territory. He suffered three broken limbs, a fractured shoulder and a bayonet wound. He endured sustained torture, but refused to break faith when given the option for early release. He remained a prisoner for more than five years.
While McCain was serving our country, Trump was living large on his wealth and attending an Ivy League school. He doesn’t understand service or sacrifice. Which is why he so flippantly insults the Gold Star parents of Capt. Humayun Khan, a Muslim-American who gave his life for this country in Iraq. His comments about Khan’s mother are unacceptable, inexcusable and unbecoming of anyone seeking the position of commander-in-chief of our military.
Rep. Jared Golden, D-Lewiston, is serving his first term in the Maine Legislature. He served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, with deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan.