This two word sentence was uttered yesterday by the President of the United States, not as a question, as posed here, but rather as a statement of some sort of aberrant, sick fact. To what does he refer? The not many is how many he says have been killed in Afghanistan of late. So I did some checking on this not many assertion.
Here’s what I found: 2019, 12 men and women in uniform were killed in Afghanistan; and then before the conditional peace was signed into being on February 29th of this year there were two more Americans killed in only two months. That’s 14 flag-draped coffins, 14 families who have lost their sons or daughters, brothers or sisters, husbands or wives, moms or dads. Fourteen. But what really tore a hole in my heart was the Glenn Kirschner piece from early this morning:
Trump’s Response to Putin’s Bounty on US Troops – “There Have Not Been Many Attacks on Us:”
It’s approximately eight minutes long, and in it Glenn features a few of the outraged tweets from folks who’d heard and were responding to Trump’s “not many” statement. The one that puts this depravity where it belongs came from a mom named Maria, whose son was killed in Afghanistan: she says I have a shirt with a bullet hole in it. Not many is irrelevant certainly, one life is too many, but it also demonstrates this president’s callous disregard for the life blood of our fighting men and women. Period.
Beau, of the Fifth Column, was as outraged as Kirschner was:
And so far today, at least from the morning shows I’ve tried to catch, CRICKETS from the feckless, useless monster in the White House. Well, at least crickets regarding this news story as credible. Instead this is what we get: It’s maybe fake; or its fake news; or it wasn’t deemed credible so it wasn’t brought to my attention. Today reporters continue to dig and it is as clear as the noses on our faces they will get to the truth; and this truth will not be pretty, it will be ugly and it will be, one hopes, the final nail in Trump’s re-election coffin.
I hope to hear more soon.
They need to keep digging until all of it is exposed. I certainly hope, as you do, this is the final nail in his presidency.
Be assured that they’ve no incentive to stop at this point.
They, meaning reporters? I think you are correct–reporters are like dogs with huge, juicy bones. I know because I was one, first for television and then for print. And the more off-putting the deflections tend to be, the harder reporters work and persist.
In other words, “nothing to see here”=”pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”
Aha. I like my take better 🙂 But you are right–this is like the damned wizard of oz trope, you know?
The NYT and the AP have both come out in last few hours with more information on this latest bit of treason. The AP’s story states Trump knew about the bounty almost a year and a half ago. This story has not just made me angry, it has made me sick.
So we’ve got AP, NYT, WaPo, WSJ, and CNN — and Trump is going to call them all fake news, I guess.
Because, of course. Up is down and down is up and all of us are liars and malcontents, or so the trope goes with this guy.
Of course, “not many” was one of Trump’s usual tone-deaf comments. Of course, each death is heart-breaking for each family impacted. https://www.defense.gov/casualty.pdf You would think a bounty would have been far more successful than it appears to have been https://www.statista.com/statistics/262894/western-coalition-soldiers-killed-in-afghanistan/ The Bulwark thinks Putin pays bounties to keep his options open. https://thebulwark.com/the-russian-bounty-scandal-shouldnt-surprise-anyone/
ONE is too fucking many!
“If I thought life was cheap, I wouldn’t charge so much to take one.”–Max Allan Collins, Quarry’s List
It’s obvious that Trump and Co. believes the opposite.
That is one reason why he is not impressed or caring about the issues the protestors are raising. The other is of course, white supremacy.
Where are those tax records showing just how deep up Putin’s arse he resides? Dimwit doesn’t want to end up like Danzel Washington in Training Day. Phuck all the lenders, launder money for the Russian criminals,(also breaking numerous fraud & tax laws), amass blood money, keep ur boss happy or u may end up tied in a barrel of gas sitting in a desert watching scenes of what happens to ur family when u cross this level of EVIL. Oh then a cigarette gets tossed ur way. As the killer said to his victims in Red Dragon, “do you see”?
By the way I love how the true things I post keep getting the moderation tag…remember how pres tang broke all asylum laws to destroy brown families & CHILDREN. Remember the 2y/o dead in the rio Grande wth her arm around her dead daddy? Keep being the nice compliant low talking church goers. The Nazis love obedience. This is a war. May be if more of you went thru boot camp, u might know more about the sacrifices required. College is just a path to law, medicine, & corporate america. U know. The same institutions that have created & brainwashed us all.
Hey Scott!
I wanted to say it was fine to post your previous response but unfortunately as of now either I don’t have or can’t find my log in information for Politizoom.
Re boot camp. I come from a family that served. From my Dad, my uncles, my brother, my cousins, and my husband–who gave away five long years of his life living in northern Germany in deprivation, couldn’t come home on any leaves, and with his life forfeit if our government decided to sacrifice him rather than own a black guy who spoke fluent Russian.
Don’t agree with you that college brainwashes us all–anything we do could serve that purpose, but thinking you haven’t been on a college or university campus in quite some time or you’d discover that there are more folks like us here on Politizoom than there are brainwashed little followers.
Funny, Scott…why therefore are Republicans so hellbent on destroying college, then? Be more mindful of your prejudices, friend. Trump is all the proof you shall ever need on what happens when you ignore them.
Carroll, I have two degrees & have lived in a college town for twenty years. I run into jill stein voters, Bernie bros & many young people not registered to vote. Answer me this, if college kids are so smart, why are thousands walking around without masks when 127,000 have died from a virus that none of us are immune to?
Hey Scott! Good question that. Not sure where you live–we’re in MD, and see info on the news from the East Coast I’d guess more than from elsewhere. In MD masks are de rigeur. Ditto in DC, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, elsewhere in this region. Pennsylvania is I’m sad to say an exception–sad because I was born there, went to Penn State, and Joe Biden is originally from there. But stupid is everywhere. I’d also contend that any of these kids you are seeing without masks–they aren’t any less susceptible to “sheeple” behavior than are their non-college peers, but more important, their adult influencers, among them their governors, state senators and reps, the bar owner, the restaurant servers, the bakery clerks, the liquor store workers, yadaydayada. Further, some of the college kids at Liberty University, home of asshole Falwell, have balked, some have transferred, some others are making their views heard. I only wish the supposed adults surrounding this execrable guy in the WH would have the ethical courage these kids have.
Jefferson stated that any citizens who thinks they can be ignorant & free, belives in what never was, and what will never be.
I agree totally, one is too many and if he knew about the bounty, if he was briefed or read the brief, then each “one” falls in his hands, deplorable
Go you one further John: if he didn’t know, why the hell not? If he wasn’t briefed, why not? Whose boneheaded decision was this? And now that he does know, no more deniability, eh?
I’am made $84, 8254 so far this year working online and I’m a full time student. Im using an online business opportunity I heard about and I’AM made such great money. It’s really user friendly and I’m just so happy that I found out about it. Heres what I do,.for more information simply open this link thank you….www.fox200.comⓇ
please don’t copy”Ⓡ” In Url Thanks