There are roses in Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, hard by the shaded expanse of Belleau Wood. Lovingly cared for in manicured beds, they bloom blood-red along the walkways through the bone-white crosses, which stretch away in precise concentric arcs from the tall stone chapel.
It is a lovely place, Aisne-Marne. Not far away is the village of Belleau, where the Commune de Belleau has another name: the Place du General Pershing. Just outside town there is a country crossroads, one road sign pointing to Chateau-Thierry and one pointing to Bouresches.
Both places are etched deep in American military annals. As of course is Belleau Wood.
In June 1918 1,800 Americans were killed there trying to clear a vicious complex of trenches, barbed wire and German machine gun nests. A lot of them were Marines, for whom Belleau Wood is a sacred name now. For some 20 days they engaged the Germans in some of the most savage fighting of the entire Great War, until finally clearing the Wood.
In that fighting, a gunnery sergeant named Ernest A, Janson became the first Marine in the war to receive a Medal of Honor, staving off a dozen Germans with his bayonet. On a single day, 31 officers and 1,056 men in one Marine unit were killed or wounded, the highest casualty rate in Marine Corps history to that time.
Now some of them, many of them, sleep their eternal sleep among the roses in Aisne-Marne. Losers and suckers all, according to the President of the United States.
Yes, I am going to write about this. Yes, you can leave the room now if you're of a mind, because I am again not going to be kind to Our Only Available Impeached President, and I know some of you are tired of that.
I couldn't care less. Leave. And don't let the door hit you on the way out.
I say this because I have been to Aisne-Marne, which OOAP was supposed to visit in 2018, the hundredth anniversary of Belleau Wood. He begged off. The official story was it was too wet for his helicopter to make the trip. That turned out to be a lie.
According to Jeffrey Goldberg's piece in the Atlantic, it was because he couldn't be bothered honoring the dead of Belleau Wood. In his estimation, the fact they got killed made them losers. And suckers. He even questioned why we fought on the side of the Allies -- a statement that rings utterly true, given his fanboy admiration for brutal totalitarian regimes and his lack of enthusiasm for democratic republics.
The rest ... well, of course OOAIP denies it all, and so his cult will, too. Once again they will haul out their battered Fake News armor to fend it off. They will say Goldberg made it all up, or the people he talked to made it all up, or yada-yada-yada.
But Goldberg's reporting is solid. He quotes numerous sources who were there. And what he reports has been confirmed multiple times now by other independent sources.
And it is not so hard to believe, is it? After all, OOAIP's disdain for the late John McCain's combat experiences, and for America POWs in general, is a matter of public record. I like guys who don't get captured. Remember that?
So calling American soldiers killed in combat "losers" and "suckers" hardly seems like much of a leap. Coddled by wealth and privilege his entire life, he has no concept of sacrifice, and even less of honor. His station kept him out of his own war, and therefore he is incapable of understanding those who fought that war and others for him.
He is a coward, and they were not. Which is why any appalling thing he has to say on the matter of military valor, President or not, is counterfeit.
And why it's just as well he didn't visit Aisne-Marne that day anyway.
He's not fit to set foot there.
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