Arlington National Cemetery (Page 1/21)
Yellow-88 AUG 31, 09:02 AM
Any one who has been to Arlington National Cemetery and came away unchanged has no understanding of why it's considered Hallowed ground. Donald Trump's behavior there was completely disgusting. By his action there, Donald Trump has no place anywhere near the title, Commander in Chief.
williegoat AUG 31, 09:29 AM
82-T/A [At Work] AUG 31, 09:30 AM

quote
Originally posted by Yellow-88:

Any one who has been to Arlington National Cemetery and came away unchanged has no understanding of why it's considered Hallowed ground. Donald Trump's behavior there was completely disgusting. By his action there, Donald Trump has no place anywhere near the title, Commander in Chief.




The converse could be said... that anyone who would check their watch during the time that deceased soldiers are being removed from C130s, and the person who is directly responsible for putting them in that situation (and why they are dead today)... can't be bothered to visit their graves... that's more disgusting. It could also be that the person, like you, who is using Trump's visiting of the cemetery as a political weapon is just as disgusting. I realize you're a Democrat, and for you it's much more than politics, it's your ideology... perhaps even your religion.

But there's a reason why the U.S. military is now the smallest it's been in over 80 years. Everyone is leaving... in 2022, they missed their recruitment goal by over 60%... and each year, they've dropped that number by 25% so the miss doesn't appear as bad. But their recruitment is down more than 75% from 2022.

You, old man... who's never spent a minute of your life serving your country, wouldn't understand. When I left the agency, I left along with nearly 10+ thousand military and civilians that all just quit because we were so horrified by the complete and total failure of the pull out in Afghanistan. We were getting calls at our desks from the people who'd helped us, and we were instructed at one point to send them to another number, and then finally... not to answer the calls at all.

It's people like you who disgust me... the people who literally VOTED for these policies. It's like how California has effectively been turned into a **** -hole, and then they're upset and confused as to how it turned out this way when it's literally as a result of the policies they voted for. Look in a mirror old man. For all your old age "wisdom," you're one of the most misguided people on here directly behind the psychopath Fred/Jim/Bing who keeps creating fake accounts and making up fake personas.
BingB AUG 31, 10:39 AM

quote
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]:

It could also be that the person, like you, who is using Trump's visiting of the cemetery as a political weapon is just as disgusting.




I would not have had any problem with Trump attending this ceremony if he had not just used it for political purposes. It was a stunt and it used our dead military men as props.

Biden and Harris were not invited. It was a set up so that the right wing media could attack them for not being there.

If it had not been a political set up then Trump would not have had any reason to have it filmed.
BingB AUG 31, 10:41 AM

quote
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]:


But there's a reason why the U.S. military is now the smallest it's been in over 80 years. Everyone is leaving... in 2022, they missed their recruitment goal by over 60%... and each year, they've dropped that number by 25% so the miss doesn't appear as bad. But their recruitment is down more than 75% from 2022..




But no Biden policy has anything to do with the samller size.

Military has been getting smakller and having trouble recruiting for year. There has been research done on the reason. I have showed you the reasons. They are not tied to any Biden policy.

If you have any proof from any study I would like to see it. Your make believe anecdotal evidence is not very convincing.
olejoedad AUG 31, 10:48 AM

quote
Originally posted by BingB:

(snip)

Biden and Harris were not invited.




POTUS needs an invite to visit Arlington?

Who knew?
82-T/A [At Work] AUG 31, 11:03 AM

quote
Originally posted by BingB:
But no Biden policy has anything to do with the samller size.

Military has been getting smakller and having trouble recruiting for year. There has been research done on the reason. I have showed you the reasons. They are not tied to any Biden policy.

If you have any proof from any study I would like to see it. Your make believe anecdotal evidence is not very convincing.




Military recruitment, and the size of the military went down under Bush's last term, and went up in Obama's first term, but down significantly in Obama's second term (erasing all the gains he had in the first term). BUT... military recruitment was up from the start of 2016 through 2018... for 3 years, it made slight improvements, and the military grew (as did DoD Civilian service). It was down slightly as a result of COVID, but the military still made 100% of its recruitment goals in 2019 and 2020. Then it dropped SIGNIFICANTLY after the pull out in Afghanistan in 2021, and it's been in a free-fall ever since. Even when they cut their recruitment goals by 20-25%, they still couldn't meet their recruitment numbers. There are very few places that show these numbers in graphs. It's actually extremely frustrating... and this is the same for almost any statistic. Almost nothing shows figures from during the Trump presidency in contrast with everything else. There's always tons of graphs and charts BEFORE, and then a few AFTER (2021+), but nothing that ever shows Trump's information in contrast to the other presidents. This information is available, as government reporting standards didn't change under Trump at all (they've actually decreased under Biden), but for some reason... no major news agency wants to put these in a chart.


You can defend Biden all you want... but people joined the military for two reasons:

1 - To serve their country and be a part of something bigger than themselves.
2 - Get out of poverty and do something with their lives.


For #1 especially... no one was excited to join the military under Biden. There are no masses of people who felt particularly patriotic because Biden won the election. Democrats were just happy that Trump wasn't inaugurated, and couldn't have cared less who it was that won. Biden has never given an inspirational speech, and he's been effectively senile for his entire presidency. Even still... people who still wanted to serve their country would have joined the military regardless... but after the pull out in Afghanistan... it changed people entirely. We felt as though we betrayed the country, and everyone else. For a long time I personally felt as though I'd betrayed both America and Afghanistan. I cried at my desk for two months straight, until I finally quit. We had more suicides at the agency in 2021 than at any time in history, but it fell 2022, and has continued to go down since (thankfully). I was never suicidal, I never saw the point in it, but I had severe depression from it, and I saw no other option than to leave... I felt that things had changed so much that there was no point in being there, and that we weren't even "serving" anymore. My coworker was an avowed Communist, had an English literature degree, despite being given a critical technical role for which he had absolutely no clue. He was a diversity hire. The agency, for example... lost more than half of its workforce in that one year. Matter of fact, it's now 1/4th the size it was in say... 2019.

In addition to all of those stressors, the continued push for DEI throughout the agency was just another nail in the coffin for most people. You wouldn't have a clue about this, but the entirety of government looks exactly like NASA does right now... a shell of its former self. I laugh when I see TV shows that show NSA employees with joysticks to control satellites... not only does the NRO do that, but we no longer have half the technology we used to. We used to make our own processors, even create our own crypto. All of this expertise left the NSA, the CIA, and all the other organizations over the last three years. These agencies are no longer innovative at all... they're just organizations that manage defense contracts now. Everything is being done by defense contractors now because no one wants to work for the government, and they've effectively destroyed themselves.

[This message has been edited by 82-T/A [At Work] (edited 08-31-2024).]

Yellow-88 AUG 31, 11:27 AM
Let me repeat. "Any one who has been to Arlington National Cemetery and came away unchanged has no understanding of why it's considered Hallowed ground."

No I never served but somehow I understand what it means to those who did. For some reason, when facing a Veteran I stand just a bit taller and straighter out of respect.

Yes, Donald Trump is free to visit Arlington just like me and every one else. But unlike him, I understand what it is.
BingB AUG 31, 11:53 AM

quote
Originally posted by olejoedad:


POTUS needs an invite to visit Arlington?

Who knew?




The point is that it was a private ceremony set up by Trump and the families. It was not any kind of public ceremony that Biden or Harris would have even known about.

It was a complete set up. And it exploited the use of Arlington National Cemetary for purely political purposes. If not then Trump would not have gone to the trouble to film it. That video is not news footage. It is Trump video production.

[This message has been edited by BingB (edited 08-31-2024).]

Yellow-88 AUG 31, 12:00 PM

quote
Originally posted by BingB:
The point is that it was a private ceremony set up by Trump and the families. It was not any kind of public ceremony that Biden or Harris would have even known about.

It was a complete set up. And it exploited the use of Arlington National Cemetary for purely political purposes. If not then Trump would not have gone to the trouble to film it. That video is not news footage. It is Trump video production.




Yes. Not only is it illegal to use it for political purposes but it is just plain wrong.