USADaily -
Donald Trump yesterday, for the second time, appeared to accuse US troops in Iraq of being thieves.
Trump had made the same accusation a year ago, suggesting this wasn’t simply an off-the-cuff mistake. Also, it’s difficult to believe, as the Trump campaign is now alleging, that Trump was referring to Iraq troops, when Trump made the same claim a year ago.
As you can imagine, the troops and vets are not at all pleased with their potentially future commander-in-chief accusing them of being crooks, and “living ver well” after leaving Iraq, when many left Iraq with PTSD and serious injuries.
First, a look at what Trump said, then the response from the troops. Here’s John Harwood of the New York Times and CNBC:
And here’s Ben Kesling of the Wall Street Journal, who is also apparently a veteran:
Politico has Trump’s comments from the rally last year, in which he again appeared to be criticizing American troops:
[T]he last time Trump touched on the subject, during a rally last fall in New Hampshire, he also appeared to suggest that American soldiers had stolen U.S. government money — both in Iraq and Afghanistan.
At a Sept. 30 [2015] rally in Keene, during remarks on Obama’s withdrawal from Iraq and Iraqi government corruption, Trump segued abruptly into discussion of the cash spent by American authorities occupying Iraq and Afghanistan.
“They didn’t really want to fight for Iraq because Iraq is a corrupt government, you know. Remember when they were handing 50 million dollars of cash? Cash! They were going through Afghanistan paying off, I want to know who were the soldiers that are carrying cash of 50 million dollars? Cash! How stupid are we?,” Trump said. “I wouldn’t be surprised those soldiers, I wouldn’t be surprised if the cash didn’t get there, I have to be honest.”
US veteran Corbin Reiff spent five years a Sergeant in the US Army. He worked on the problem Trump attacked. He is one of the vets whose integrity Trump just questioned.
Read Sgt. Reiff’s responses on Twitter from the bottom of this page, up — because of the way Twitter works, his responses are in reverse chronological order, so you need to start at the bottom.
Follow me on Twitter: @aravosis
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