Donald Trump is a coward

[Thingamabob]

At least people are talking about peace now. It will be tough though. Putin wants the Russian speaking areas of eastern Ukraine, while Zelensky wants the money flow to continue. I think Trump will resolve this, but it will take time.

[MicroB]

1 hour ago, mikeymike100 said:

Oh dear......you may want to check how many ex presidents avoided the draft, before posting infantile comments?

Of the presidents whose lifetimes overlapped with the Vietnam draft, four who served as president after the war avoided it: Clinton, G. W. Bush, Trump, and Biden. That’s four out of the six post-Vietnam presidents who were of draft-eligible age at the time (excluding Obama and G. H. W. Bush for age reasons). All used legal deferments—student, medical, or Guard service—common among the 15 million men who avoided Vietnam service out of 27 million eligible.

Avoiding the draft wasn’t rare. Over half the eligible men didn’t serve, thanks to deferments (9 million got them), exemptions, or high lottery numbers after 1969. Presidents reflect that trend—many were from privileged backgrounds with access to education or connections. No president since Vietnam saw combat there, though some earlier ones (like Nixon) served in prior wars

 

 

Actually, irrespective of the individuals who were elected, it is remarkable that no American president has been elected (or ever will it seems) who served in the Vietnam War. I'm not sure any served in the Korean War either.

 

Looking at post war VPs:

 

Walter Mondale was in the Army during the Korean War, but I don't think he was deployed.

Dan Quayle was in the National Guard, and so avoided the draft

Al Gore; interestingly, he joined the army in order to help his dad get re-elected (it didn't work). Most of his Harvard classmates found ways to avoid the draft. He went to South Vietnam as a military journalist. He went in as an Enlisted Man, but its thought that Nixon delayed his deployment, in case his dad would use that to win votes. He was only in Vietnam for a few weeks.

JD Vance; Served 4 years, 6 months of which was in Iraq as a base photographer.

 

So it seems military service is an exaggerrated vote winner. I'm sure if I went through Primary Candidates for both parties I would find individuals with substantive post-war combat experience, but ultimately it counted for nothing.

 

The obvious example of a losing candidate with substantive experience was John McCain, and it really did him no good, and in fact was used negatively against him by members of his own party.

 

Other losing candidates:

 

Mike Dukakis; in Army after the Korean War

Bob Dole; wounded WW2 veteran

John Kerry; Vietnam War, 3 Purple heart, 1 silver star, 1 bronze star. The whole Swift Boating nonsense marred all that, as his opponants sought to downplay his military experience, perhaps a portend of the absolute weaponising of the topic.

 

 

 

 

 

[MicroB]

19 minutes ago, Thingamabob said:

At least people are talking about peace now. It will be tough though. Putin wants the Russian speaking areas of eastern Ukraine, while Zelensky wants the money flow to continue. I think Trump will resolve this, but it will take time.

 

The US are now blocking RAF RC135 Rivet Joint patrols from sharing raw data, leading to a 15% in accuracy of artillery.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/07/russia-launches-huge-strikes-across-ukraine-as-us-halts-intelligence-sharing

 

All the UK can do is supply a highly filtered version of the data.

 

Presumably the American president hasn't slept a wink since Monday as he seeks to resolve the greatest global crisis in his 78 years on this Earth, as he doesn't want any Ukrainian kiddies having to die while the adults argue.

 

Sharing Intelligence data costs the US nothing, except for the data that's leaking at their end to the Russian military. The American president has done this as a way to cause more Ukrainians to die, in uniform, but mostly civilian, to force the Ukrainian government to bend to his will.

 

Its not about sacks of dollars arriving in Kiev. Ukraine does have money if it was only about Ukraine having the ability to place an order with a US ammunition manufacturer. The US has physically blocked delivery of ammunition. They also will block delivery of purchased materiel from the US. They have the power to block delivery of US made ammunition by other countries. Both sides use essentially Soviet tactics, which uses ammunition at a ferocious rate.

 

 

[riclag]

7 hours ago, mikeymike100 said:

Oh dear......you may want to check how many ex presidents avoided the draft, before posting infantile comments?

Of the presidents whose lifetimes overlapped with the Vietnam draft, four who served as president after the war avoided it: Clinton, G. W. Bush, Trump, and Biden. That’s four out of the six post-Vietnam presidents who were of draft-eligible age at the time (excluding Obama and G. H. W. Bush for age reasons). All used legal deferments—student, medical, or Guard service—common among the 15 million men who avoided Vietnam service out of 27 million eligible.

Avoiding the draft wasn’t rare. Over half the eligible men didn’t serve, thanks to deferments (9 million got them), exemptions, or high lottery numbers after 1969. Presidents reflect that trend—many were from privileged backgrounds with access to education or connections. No president since Vietnam saw combat there, though some earlier ones (like Nixon) served in prior wars

 

This nonsense has been goin on for what seems like decades. Anything, I

mean anything to diminish his popularity, the lunatics on the left will always be there, trying to kill him, crash through the White House fence(Floyd riots) , shoot him and others up at a rally or assassinate him at MaraLago.

Secret service just took another lunatic out.

 

https://abc7.com/post/armed-man-shot-secret-service-white-house-president-trump-town/15996542/#

 

[Jingthing]

6 hours ago, Thingamabob said:

At least people are talking about peace now. It will be tough though. Putin wants the Russian speaking areas of eastern Ukraine, while Zelensky wants the money flow to continue. I think Trump will resolve this, but it will take time.

Trump couldn't resolve his way out of a paper bag. He knows all he can manage for that war is a complete surrender of Ukraine and when he fails to get any kind of real deal, he's got his scapegoat all selected, the bravest leader of our era, the president of Ukraine. 

[SunnyinBangrak]

25 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Trump couldn't resolve his way out of a paper bag. He knows all he can manage for that war is a complete surrender of Ukraine and when he fails to get any kind of real deal, he's got his scapegoat all selected, the bravest leader of our era, the president of Ukraine. 

That's the ticket, chin up & think positive🤣

[Jingthing]

16 minutes ago, SunnyinBangrak said:

That's the ticket, chin up & think positive🤣

So it's OK with you and "positive" that Trump is now helping Putin murder Ukrainian civilians? 

[LiamB80]

Europeans are cowards, the whole lot. They can’t fight their own battles. Imagine begging a country across the ocean to save you from Russians. 

[KireB]

14 hours ago, mikeymike100 said:

Oh dear......you may want to check how many ex presidents avoided the draft, before posting infantile comments?

Of the presidents whose lifetimes overlapped with the Vietnam draft, four who served as president after the war avoided it: Clinton, G. W. Bush, Trump, and Biden. That’s four out of the six post-Vietnam presidents who were of draft-eligible age at the time (excluding Obama and G. H. W. Bush for age reasons). All used legal deferments—student, medical, or Guard service—common among the 15 million men who avoided Vietnam service out of 27 million eligible.

Avoiding the draft wasn’t rare. Over half the eligible men didn’t serve, thanks to deferments (9 million got them), exemptions, or high lottery numbers after 1969. Presidents reflect that trend—many were from privileged backgrounds with access to education or connections. No president since Vietnam saw combat there, though some earlier ones (like Nixon) served in prior wars

 

So, all 4 were cowards who sent young men to war for the financial benefits of the American elites.

[MicroB]

32 minutes ago, KireB said:

So, all 4 were cowards who sent young men to war for the financial benefits of the American elites.

 

It probably says more about the background needed for anyone to succeed in politics; all of them came from families who had the means to influence the conscription process, whether working the deferment process, providing fake medical reports, manipulating the draft process. I think most families would do that if they could.

 

My great uncle was in the first world war. The story was he came back from the front, and was a quivering wreck. It seems he went AWOL, and the MPs came for him and sent him back. Nothing more was said, but he wasa miserable bugger for the rest of his life.

 

Another Great Uncle, from another half of the family, was a Beven boy in WW2. I gather he didn't get on with being in a coal mine, and went back home to London. No one turned him in, and he may have played the system. He obviously brought himself enough time that by the time they came for him, the war was nearly over. He went to court, and was offered the choice, prison or National Service. He opted for the latter, got into the Royal Engineers, and then just as he finished Basic, the war was over. Had a stint in West Germany, which got him going on his import-export Delboy business. Nothing more said.

 

ie The 47th President is not a coward, or rather was never given the chance to show if he was a coward or not. The decision for him to join the army was taken away from him by a father, who's own dad evaded military service, for reasons that have never been clear. And elections show that detail in a candidate's background is overstated. Ultimately, who cares what a 70 year pld did when they were 18.