Washington: Donald Trump lacks the “respect and fitness” to serve as the US commander-in-chief and his continued attack on the military, veterans and their families is derogatory, a former top American general and a father of a slain Muslim American soldier have said.
General (Retd) John Allen and Khizr Khan during a joint conference call with reporters assailed the billionaire as temperamentally “unfit to serve as commander-in-chief, disrespectful toward our troops, ill-informed about military operations, and unwilling to educate himself”.
“I am really saddened to see Donald Trump’s remarks about our military leadership. I salute our military leaders, their sacrifices, their service to our country. Their service and their leadership has made this country great, and a leader in the world,” said Khan, a Pakistani-American, whose son died in a combat operation in Iraq in 2004.
“I want to address him directly.
“Donald Trump: Your practice of division and hatred is unacceptable to America. Your practice of hatred and division is not according to American values that we know. You have constantly, and your surrogates have constantly, practiced disrespect and indignity towards my sisters and daughters, the women of the United States. It’s unacceptable,” Khan said.
Allen said Trump’s remarks about the Mosul offensive are not only uninformed, but it also directly undercuts the courage and the commitment of US troops.
“And I took great exception to this. However, he feels personally about this operation, he should be encouraging our efforts publicly, rather than disparaging them,” he said.
He added: “While (Trump) appears not to understand basic military activities, it’s not clear to me that he’s interested in learning them, either. Because there are many of experts, who I think… would advise him otherwise. But he seems to be confident in his knowledge. And that knowledge, I think, reveals a lot about what he doesn’t know.
“This kind of rhetoric; this kind of disrespect for our military leadership; this absence of support for our troops who are actually in combat and support for our allies who are fighting and dying every day it means to me that this individual is not qualified to be Commander-in-Chief.”
Khan said “if you aspire to be the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the United States, you have proven yourself disqualified temperamentally. You are neither capable, nor (are you) willing to learn”.
Democrat Hillary Clinton also attacked Trump a day after he said he would teach a military expert a few lessons on IS, saying it is the real estate mogul who needs to take lessons about military and all other things that makes America great.
“He (Trump) keeps insulting our military. Yesterday, when he heard that a retired Army colonel and former dean of the Army War College said that Donald doesn’t understand military strategy, Trump said, ‘I’ll teach him a couple things.’ Well actually, Donald, you’re the one who’s got a lot to learn about the military and everything else that makes America great,” she said at an election rally in North Carolina.
PTI
