Trump views US troops as disposable - the Russian bounty scandal makes that clear
Time and again, the president has failed to protect military personnel. For Trump, he always comes first, no matter who dies
Simon Tisdall
Tue 30 Jun 2020 17.36 EDTLast modified on Tue 30 Jun 2020 17.53 EDT
Donald Trump likes to suggest he has got the back of US soldiers battling America’s foes around the world. It was a big theme of his 2016 campaign and his West Point speech earlier this month. So great was his boundless care for America’s fighting men and women, he said, that he would halt the endless, costly foreign wars prosecuted by his predecessors – and bring them home.
Recent reports that Trump ignored an official intelligence finding warning that a covert Russian GRU military unit had placed bounties on the heads of American and British soldiers in Afghanistan give the lie to that particularly cynical piece of bluster.
Trump does not deny such an intelligence finding was presented in February, or possibly even earlier. When asked why he had not acted on it to save lives, the White House first claimed the intelligence was weak and inconclusive. When that was rebutted, Trump claimed he was not told about it. So which is it?
Many suspect Trump was intent on appeasing Vladimir Putin, his sinister chum in the Kremlin, who the former British MI6 spy Christopher Steele alleges has some kind of personal or financial hold on the president . Maybe it’s simpler: he just wasn’t paying attention when his NSC intelligence officers briefed him.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/30/trump-russia-afghanistan-military-bounty
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