OPINION:
It’s not like they leave much room for doubt about how much contempt they hold for military service and the immeasurable sacrifice that comes with it.
Two of the Democratic Party’s last three nominees for president voted to send our troops to die and be maimed in a war they later determined was not worth it. For both John Kerry in 2004 and Hillary Clinton in 2016, that change of heart came just as soon as it became politically advantageous for them to cut and run.
President Obama, meanwhile, built his entire political career around promises to end the war in Iraq and withdraw all of our troops from harm’s way. Of course, he completely failed to deliver on that promise — but not before managing to give up so much hard-fought territory won by the blood and guts of our brave men and women.
Oh, and in the process he also managed to spawn a whole new terror network the likes of which this world has never seen before.
Thanks, Obama.
Now comes the fearless widow Carryn Owens, whose Navy Seal husband was the first American casualty under President Trump as Commander-in-Chief. The two-minute standing ovation she braved during Mr. Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress this week surely made her husband just as proud of her as the entire nation is of him.
Hers were certainly tears of pain and prayers of agony. But they were also tears of fortitude. And prayers of an enduring spirit.
Carryn Owens, and her husband, Ryan, are the absolute best America has to offer. To send people like them into war for anything short of a mission absolutely worth it is a desecration of their sacrifices and a total dereliction of duty.
Any politician who makes that mistake should be hounded from public office forever. They should be forced to spend the rest of their lives cleaning bed pans in VA hospitals — except that service is a calling too noble for such low, selfish and thoughtless vermin.
You would think that someone as beautiful and strong and brave as Carryn Owens would be something above partisan hackery. Wrong.
Leftwing television gasbags pounced on the widow. The chronically unfunny HBO yapper Bill Maher called the moment that America wept with Carryn Owens “gross” and “shameful.”
“I wish she hadn’t allowed herself to be used as his prop like that.” Get that? Sliming Donald Trump is not enough for this singular dirt bag. He has to slime her to and treat her like some mindless dolt incapable of her own self-determination.
The incurable arrogance and stupidity of these people knows no bounds.
Anyway, isn’t it the Democrat Party that will — literally — politicize anything? President Obama spent his entire career as president looking for ways to toss hand grenades into America soldiers’ tents.
He commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning (nee Bradley) after the soldier committed espionage that imperiled the lives of countless U.S. troops.
Then there was the time he surrendered five murderous terrorists from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who deserted his squad in Afghanistan. Every bit of it emanated from Mr. Obama’s deep contempt for military families and the sacrifices they make to keep America safe.
Perhaps the most contemptible stunt Democrats ever pulled to denigrate the military in hopes of scoring political points was trotting out the Gold Star parents of Capt. Humayun Khan at last summer’s Democratic convention.
It had nothing to do with the ultimate sacrifice Capt. Khan paid at a checkpoint in Iraq in 2004. Rather, it was all part of their grand scheme of using racial and religious profiling to goose support among a flagging Democratic electorate.
One of the sweetest things about this last election was that for the first time in many years such calculating dishonesty did not pay off in America politics. But, at this rate, Democrats face many more years of losing elections before they learn this lesson.
⦁ Charles Hurt can be reached at churt@washingtontimes.com; follow him on Twitter via @charleshurt.
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