Sunday 19 July 2015

Donald Trump deserves a smack in the mouth!

There are many reasons I write blogs. Todays has perhaps the strangest reason of all. My Dad passed away in January 1987. He would be 100 years old on April 1st 2017. I often think about him and miss him dearly. They say time heals, but in some ways I'm not altogether sure I've  ever gotten over his death completely. He was 69 years old and died suddenly of a heart attack. I was 24 at the time and it knocked me for six. I had mistakenly believed him to be invincible. I thought I had good reason.

My Dad was an Ex RAF bomber pilot. Whilst the RAF had 55,000 casualties, my father completed 40 operational missions. On the last f his tour of duty, he was shot down whilst conducting a bombing raid on the Ploesti Oil Fields in Romania. He was attached to 40 squadron, flying by then obsolete Wellington Bombers. His squadron was the last to fly Wellingtons operationally. They were being replaced by the more modern Liberator Bombers. After he was shot down, he was captured and imprisoned in a POW camp in Bucharest. He was a POW for 68 days, before leading a mass breakout of Allied prisoners and being repatirated to Italy by the US Air Force.

So you may ask, what has all of this got to do with Donald Trump? Well last night I had a rather disturbed nights sleep. My family are a rather superstitious lot and we take such things very seriously. I awoke with a sharp turn at 4am on the dot. I had been sleeping rather soundly and I was having a very pleasant dream that I was having a chat and a guinness with my Dad. All of a sudden, he said "What is it with all this blogging then Rog?". I replied "Oh, I write a blog that a lot of people read, I've never quite figured out why". He then said "Could you do something for me?" I said "Of course". He then said "Can you write a blog with the title Donald Trump deserves a smack in the mouth!". I was a tad taken aback by this as I wasn't aware my Dad had ever expressed an opinion about Donald Trump. So I said "Why would I write that". He replied, rather sarcastically "You fancy yourself as a top blogger, figure it out". With that I woke up. Whilst I usually forget dreams, this was so vivid and so real that I have spent the day feeling a tad uneasy. I racked my brains as to what it could mean, but couldn't quite understand.

In the end, I decided to Google "Donald Trump smack in the mouth". To my horror, on page one it returned "Donald Trump Uses Old Al Franken POW Joke About John ..." I immediately realised that wherever my Dad lurks now, he is a tad pissed off abut something Donald Trump said. As the site was a blog, I thought I'd dig deeper for a more substancial source. I found the Washington Post was also running the story - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/07/18/trump-slams-mccain-for-being-captured-in-vietnam/ - In it I read Trumps comments

“He’s not a war hero,” Trump said. Sarcastically, Trump quipped, “He’s a war hero because he was captured.” Then, he added, “I like people that weren’t captured.”
So basically by Trumps standards, my Dad is not a war hero either. Sadly my Dad is no longer around to defend himself. If he was he'd be 98 years old. The POW camp in Bucharest he was detained at held 1,800 American Airmen. Every single one of those guys had stepped into a plane, flown thousands of miles over enemy territory, to fight a ruthless and evil ideology. Every single one of them had been shot down, and baled out of a crashing airoplane. Every single one of them had lost crewmates, friends and sometimes family in the process. Every soldier, sailor and airman who was taken prisoner serving for the US armed forces was taken prisoner, because they had put themselves in danger. You don't get taken prisoner sitting at a desk in Washington, you get taken prisoner because you are in the front line.  I know little about Trump. I read his Wikipedia entry and it doesnt mention any military service.

It does have a list of awards and honours Mr Trump has received in his "esteemed" career.

Awards and honors


Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
I had a quick look at the Wiki page for John McCain. It said of his war record.

On July 29, 1967, McCain, by then a lieutenant commander, was near the epicenter of the USS Forrestal fire. He escaped from his burning jet and was trying to help another pilot escape when a bomb exploded;[28] McCain was struck in the legs and chest by fragments.[29] The ensuing fire killed 134 sailors and took 24 hours to control.[30][31] With the Forrestal out of commission, McCain volunteered for assignment with the USS Oriskany, another aircraft carrier employed in Operation Rolling Thunder.[32] Once there, he would be awarded the Navy Commendation Medal and the Bronze Star for missions flown over North Vietnam.[33]

Prisoner of war

John McCain's capture and subsequent imprisonment began on October 26, 1967. He was flying his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam when his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down by a missile over Hanoi.[34][35] McCain fractured both arms and a leg ejecting from the aircraft,[36] and nearly drowned when he parachuted into Trúc Bạch Lake.[34] Some North Vietnamese pulled him ashore, then others crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt and bayoneted him.[34] McCain was then transported to Hanoi's main Hỏa Lò Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton".[35]
Although McCain was badly wounded, his captors refused to treat his injuries, beating and interrogating him to get information; he was given medical care only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a top admiral.[37] His status as a prisoner of war (POW) made the front pages of major newspapers.[38][39]

I have no idea whether I really received a "message from beyond the grave, or whether I'd heard the story and only registered it subconsciously. I know for certain that had my Dad been around and had he heard the story, his response would have been exactly as it was in the dream. Trump is clearly a buffoon and clearly completely unfit to be the President of the USA. To question a man such as John McCain over his war record is the work of a complete low life. I suspect that had Mccain ever met my Dad, they would have got on like a house on fire. He loved chatting to other pilots and was totally fascinated by the experiences of POW's. As for how he'd have reacted to Trump, if he'd been in his prime and Trump had said such a thing in his earshot, it wouldn't have ended happily for Mr Trump.

I just hope the Americans have the sense to dump Trump and lets hope that whoever they pick, they are someone of courage, commonsense and wisdom. 
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