Why wasn’t there more outrage when Trump skipped the ‘dignified transfer’ of the soldiers’ remains for golf and a fundraiser in Florida?
US army recover missing soldiers’ vehicle in Lithuanian swamp
Rescuers have recovered the armored vehicle of four missing U.S. soldiers that sunk in a peat bog in Lithuania.
If one of the four American soldiers who died during a training exercise in Lithuania in late March had been from Arizona, those of us who live here would have paid more attention.
It shouldn’t be that way, but it is.
If President Donald Trump hadn’t then sent the financial world spiraling into an abyss by imposing tariffs on about 90 nations, we’d have paid more attention to the soldiers who died.
It shouldn’t be that way, but it is.
If Trump had decided to attend what is called the “dignified transfer” of the soldiers’ remains at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, instead of heading to his Florida estate to play golf and attend a fundraiser, we’d have paid more attention.
It really shouldn’t be that way, but it is.
Lithuania showed more respect for our dead
Shame on us.
The good and gracious people of Lithuania showed more respect for our military dead than we did.
On April 3, hundreds of Lithuanians stood silently in Vilnius as a procession carrying the four coffins passed through the city’s Cathedral Square on its way to the airport and a plane taking the remains back to the U.S.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausada was there to honor our dead, showing more respect for their service and their sacrifice than the president of the United States.
Nausada told reporters, “Their readiness to be with us, as they say, in a difficult neighborhood, is the best proof of who our friends are today.”
What does Trump choosing golf and fundraising over being there when our dead arrived at Dover say about him?
And about us?
Trump chose golf over honoring fallen troops
President Joe Biden was once vilified by some media outlets for checking his watch near the end of the dignified transfer ceremony at Dover for military personnel lost in Afghanistan.
But he was there.
Trump chose a fancy LIV Golf dinner reception that was bankrolled by Saudi Arabia, and then some golf, over being present when the caskets arrived.
He sent Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in his place.
Imagine if Biden or President Barack Obama or just about any other president had chosen golf over lost members of our military.
Soldiers are already forgotten. That’s a tragedy
The soldiers died when their M88A2 Hercules armored recovery vehicle sank during an early morning training exercise on March 25. It took days to recover all the bodies.
They were Jose Duenez Jr., 25, of Joliet, Ill.; Staff Sgt. Edvin F. Franco, 25, of Glendale, Calif.; Pfc. Dante D. Taitano, 21, of Dededo, Guam; and Staff Sgt. Troy S. Knutson-Collins, 28, of Battle Creek, Mich.
In the end, Trump, unlike the president of Lithuania, was not around to honor them, not there to speak their names, to remind the rest of us what genuine service means, and what it sometimes requires.
All of this happened just last week, and already it is old news. More or less forgotten. Even the soldiers.
It shouldn’t be that way, but it is.
Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.
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