Washington: Donald Trump lacks the “respect and fitness” to serve as the US commander-in-chief and his continued attack on the military, veterans and their families is derogatory, a former top American general and a father of a slain Muslim American soldier have said.
General (Retd) John Allen and Khizr Khan during a joint conference call with reporters assailed the billionaire as temperamentally “unfit to serve as commander-in-chief, disrespectful toward our troops, ill-informed about military operations, and unwilling to educate himself”.
“I am really saddened to see Donald Trump’s remarks about our military leadership. I salute our military leaders, their sacrifices, their service to our country. Their service and their leadership has made this country great, and a leader in the world,” said Khan, a Pakistani-American, whose son died in a combat operation in Iraq in 2004.
“I want to address him directly.
“Donald Trump: Your practice of division and hatred is unacceptable to America. Your practice of hatred and division is not according to American values that we know. You have constantly, and your surrogates have constantly, practiced disrespect and indignity towards my sisters and daughters, the women of the United States. It’s unacceptable,” Khan said.
Allen said Trump’s remarks about the Mosul offensive are not only uninformed, but it also directly undercuts the courage and the commitment of US troops.
“And I took great exception to this. However, he feels personally about this operation, he should be encouraging our efforts publicly, rather than disparaging them,” he said.
He added: “While (Trump) appears not to understand basic military activities, it’s not clear to me that he’s interested in learning them, either. Because there are many of experts, who I think… Would advise him otherwise. But he seems to be confident in his knowledge. And that knowledge, I think, reveals a lot about what he doesn’t know.
“This kind of rhetoric; this kind of disrespect for our military leadership; this absence of support for our troops who are actually in combat and support for our allies who are fighting and dying every day – it means to me that this individual is not qualified to be Commander-in-Chief.”
Khan said “if you aspire to be the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the United States, you have proven yourself disqualified temperamentally. You are neither capable, nor (are you) willing to learn”.
Democrat Hillary Clinton also attacked Trump a day after he said he would teach a military expert a few lessons on IS, saying it is the real estate mogul who needs to take lessons about military and all other things that makes America great.
“He (Trump) keeps insulting our military. Yesterday, when he heard that a retired Army colonel and former dean of the Army War College said that Donald doesn’t understand military strategy, Trump said, ‘I’ll teach him a couple things.’ Well actually, Donald, you’re the one who’s got a lot to learn about the military and everything else that makes America great,” she said at an election rally in North Carolina.
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“Starting by learning about the dignity and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform and their families. And he should learn from Michelle Obama how a leader supports them, not disrespects them!” she said.
“No one knows the stakes in this election better than our First Lady. Because all the progress that we’ve achieved under President Obama’s leadership is at stake – he pulled our economy out of the biggest ditch that it was in when he became president. He saved the auto industry, he cracked down on Wall Street, he has tackled healthcare, climate change, civil rights, and so much else,” Clinton added.
Military families have come up against a lot in this election, she said.
“It just made me boil when Donald Trump disrespected a Gold Star family, Mr. And Mrs. Khan. He still hasn’t apologised to them. He actually made it worse – just yesterday, he said again that if America had only made him President years ago, their son, Captain Khan, would still be alive. Honestly, I don’t — I don’t understand how anyone would want to rub salt in the wounds of a grieving family,” said the former secretary of state.
Clinton said American children are scared that they are going to be sent out of the country because their parents are immigrants or they are immigrants.
“They’re scared if they’re Muslim, or have a disability.
“I got a letter from a parent — a mom from Wisconsin, I think, who adopted her son Felix from Ethiopia when he was a toddler. He just turned 11 years old – he wrote my campaign to let me know he was now 11 years old. I love it when little kids do little birthday remembrances. America is the only country he’s ever known.
“One day, he turned to his mom and asked, ‘If Donald Trump becomes President, is he going to make me go back to Ethiopia’. Now that honestly breaks my heart,” she said.
“We’ve got to make sure all our kids know that America has a place for you — the American Dream is big enough for you. And then, we’ve got to make sure they learn the right lessons about how to treat people. I saw that sign, I believe in love and kindness, right Well, here’s one place to start. We know that bullying is a real problem in our classrooms, our playgrounds and online – and teachers have reported that this election has made it worse,” Clinton said.
At the rally in Winston-Salem, Clinton and First Lady Michelle Obama laid out the stakes in this election and urged Americans to preserve the progress of the last eight years on November 8.
Clinton also highlighted a new plan she released to address the urgent crisis of bullying. Her plan would provide USD 500 million in new funding to states that develop comprehensive anti-bullying plans.
PTI