It was huge news when White House Chief of Staff John Kelly appeared before the White House press corps two weeks ago to defend President Donald Trump’s phone call to the widow of Army Sgt. La David T. Johnson.
But Kelly’s most peculiar remarks went largely unnoticed. U.S. soldiers, Kelly said, volunteer even though “there’s nothing in our country anymore that seems to suggest that selfless service to the nation is not only appropriate, but required.” This was, Kelly lamented, because nothing in America is “sacred” anymore, like women or religion. We’ve also, according to Kelly, discarded the “sanctity of life” (i.e., abortion is legal).
In other words, Kelly may love whatever version of America’s past that he has in his mind. But he is not particularly fond of this actual country, today, or Americans themselves (unless they’ve been in the military).
Kelly went on to express similar feelings in his recent Fox News interview when discussing Trump’s call to Myeshia Johnson, which Florida Democrat Rep. Frederica Wilson criticized for upsetting Johnson. (Trump told Johnson that her late husband “knew what he was getting into,” and Johnson believed Trump had trouble recalling La David’s name.) Wilson’s statements, Kelly said, made him wonder if “doing anything” for the United States “is worth it anymore.”
Kelly has clearly felt this way for quite some time. In a 2007 speech, he claimed that America has “lost something of quality over the years. … Today, unfortunately, to most it’s about quick gratification, and what’s in it for me. Memorial and Veteran’s Day are more about a day off to take advantage of the big sales at the malls.” Indeed, he said, it’s almost inexplicable why anyone would join the military, given how awful the U.S. is, including the “great pressure from our society to sit it out and not get involved.”
By contrast, the military is an ideal institution that has never lost a war, although it has been stabbed in the back by the terrible people back in America: “When we have lost,” according to Kelly, “we lost at home, and others declared defeat — not us.”
Of course, it’s completely legitimate to criticize the U.S., and it would be truly worthwhile to sit down with Kelly and explore why he feels this way. But an honest discussion wouldn’t go the way he anticipates.
First, Kelly’s perspective is noticeably Marxist. As “The Communist Manifesto” famously claims, under capitalism, “all fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away. … All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned.” But it’s unlikely Kelly wants to face the reality that much of his anger should be directed at America’s economic system.
Kelly also might be surprised that women did not experience being able to vote, or having credit cards in their own name, or the legal protection from being fired for being pregnant, as being “sacred.” He could also usefully ponder, particularly since he’s from Boston, whether the previous sanctity of the Catholic Church had something to do with priests sexually abusing children for decades with impunity.
And an examination of the most valid part of his bill of indictment – the unconscionable burden our wars place on a small slice of the U.S. population – would be particularly uncomfortable for Kelly. He believes that we are locked in a death match with countless, merciless savages and resents the fact that most young people don’t agree enough to enlist. From a certain angle, this is understandable, especially given the fact that one of his sons was killed in Afghanistan and another is still in the Marines.
But then Kelly should immediately have a talk with both Trump and George W. Bush, who not only haven’t persuaded most Americans of these stakes, but can’t even persuade their own children — every single one of whom has instead chosen the kind of civilian, sybaritic, careless life Kelly finds so distasteful. Kelly might also consider that the Pentagon does not want lots of additional volunteers and loathes the idea of the draft, because the fewer Americans involved in our wars, the freer political hand the generals have to prosecute them.
It may seem like a weird contradiction for Kelly to speak constantly about his devotion to his country, while finding his fellow citizens so detestable. But if you pay attention, you’ll see this kind of worldview is common among the loudest patriots everywhere on earth.
President Richard Nixon sits in the Oval Office of the White House on Feb. 2, 1974 in Washington.
Photo: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images
No one, of course, was a bigger patriot than Richard Nixon. He vaulted into power by rooting out various communist traitors, even if they weren’t communists or traitors. In the midst of Watergate, he went on national television to tell everyone that there would “be no whitewash at the White House … because I love America.”
Meanwhile, in private taped conversations with aides, Nixon would expound on how repellent huge swaths of Americans are. It turns out that Mexican Americans “steal, they’re dishonest.” However, there was some hope for them, because “they do have some concept of family life. They don’t live like a bunch of dogs, which the Negroes do live like.”
Another of Nixon’s insights was that “the Jews are born spies.” He asked his chief of staff, “What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob? … I suppose it is because most of them are psychiatrists.” Irish-Americans weren’t quite as bad, but “virtually every Irish I’ve known gets mean when he drinks.” Italians “don’t have their heads screwed on tight.” Nixon also felt strongly about “fags” and “fairies,” who, together with drugs, are “the enemies of strong societies.”
Israeli leaders have felt similar disgust about Israelis, and sometimes Jews more generally. In 2002 Sara Netanyahu, the wife of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was taped telling a friend that Bibi was the “one person who can save this country” and in fact he was “greater than this entire country.” If Israelis didn’t elect him, she said, “We’ll move abroad. This country can burn. … People here will be slaughtered.”
This seems like a promising campaign slogan:
Israel: This Country Can Burn
Vote Netanyahu!
Then there’s a famous 1982 interview by Amos Oz with “C.”, an anonymous top officer in the Israeli military. C. emphasized that “I don’t hate Arabs,” but did in fact despise “Yids,” both in Israel and elsewhere. The “sweetest fruit” of Israel’s recent invasion of Lebanon, said C., was that now the world purportedly “also hate[d] all those Feinschmecker Jews in Paris, London, New York, Frankfurt, and Montreal, in all their holes. At last they hate all these nice Yids.” He then fantasized about Jewish cemeteries being desecrated, synagogues being burned down, and Jewish children being shot, so the Jewish diaspora would be forced to move to Israel en masse.
But if “C.” didn’t hate Arabs, Arab leaders certainly have. Ahmed Chalabi, whom U.S. neoconservatives hoped to install as Iraq’s leader after the U.S. invasion, was from a wealthy Arab family. When Chalabi became angry at one of his CIA handlers, he delivered a stinging insult: The CIA operative, he said, “was thinking like an Arab.”
This perspective was shared by Chalabi’s minions in his organization, the Iraqi National Congress. After Saddam Hussein was deposed, Mideast expert Glen Rangwala visited Chalabi’s new headquarters – at Uday Hussein’s favorite hunting club in Baghdad. It was “bizarre,” Rangwala reports, with “waiters bringing you free cocktails under elaborate chandeliers, whilst an INC goon tells you about how stupid Arabs are.”
Next door, in Iran, regular people are also appalling. Mohsen Makhmalbaf, a famed Iranian filmmaker and dissident, wrote a series of articles in 2009 about Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Khamenei’s wife, according to Makhmalbaf, believes “the Iranian people are fawning liars and traitors” who grovel before him even as they plot against the government.
Then, of course, there are the dreadful Palestinians, whom Yasser Arafat called an “ungrateful people.”
Photo: Abdullah Zaheeruddin/Getty Images
The psychology behind this pattern among the greatest self-professed patriots is transparent. They see themselves as their country’s rightful rulers, and hence the rightful role of the rest of us is simply to follow orders and intermittently erupt in applause. Any resistance to their whims is therefore maddening and a clear sign of moral decay among the peasantry.
So it makes perfect sense that John Kelly has risen to the top of the Trump administration. On this issue he and the president are soulmates. No one is louder than Trump about loving America, even as his only goal seems to be to insult every American individually, one by one, via Twitter. Why? Because, like Kelly, he hates us. You don’t need to take my word for it; Trump himself has said it clearly: “For the most part, you can’t respect people because most people aren’t worthy of respect.”
Top photo: John Kelly listens to questions during a press conference related to President Donald Trump’s recent executive order concerning travel and refugees, Jan. 31, 2017 in Washington.
Weaponized guilt at its finest: “Kelly also might be surprised that women did not experience being able to vote, or having credit cards in their own name, or the legal protection from being fired for being pregnant, as being “sacred.” He could also usefully ponder, particularly since he’s from Boston, whether the previous sanctity of the Catholic Church had something to do with priests sexually abusing children for decades with impunity.”
An excerpt from https://www.freemansperspective.com/dirty-trick-thats-destroying-us/ on what “Weaponized Guilt” is:
“So, how do you subvert people in a culture centered on righteous action? You convince them of sin of course. You find one way after another to make them feel like they – and their civilization – have failed to be righteous; that’s the weak point. Then you convince them that they need to absolve themselves in ways that suit your agenda.
Have you noticed that the guilt slingers always have a preset conclusion for you… a single thing you must do to absolve the guilt they tossed upon you
Here’s an example: An imposer of guilt says that your community has allowed sewage to be poured into the river. And along with that comes an either/or solution: A new regulatory agency must be given sweeping powers… and if you don’t agree, you favor sewage in drinking water!
This trick has been eviscerating the West for decades. There’s even a well-known school of thought known as critical theory that promotes this. These people have dedicated themselves to criticizing everything possible about Western civilization… and have prospered by it. Their tool is weaponized guilt… the West’s Kryptonite.”
This one is a textbook example of ‘Prejudicial’ writing!
Kelly must ACCEPT the authors description of America—–which is seriously distorted by the authors politics–in order to make valid statements.
Political Correctness—–or PBC — Political Bull Crap
The Intercept at its origin had a principled stance of objectivity. Now its very different. Article after article, seems principle has long left and is no different than the press pool in WH daily briefings.
This article, short on facts, literally nothing on peoples actions, but paragraphs of hyperbole focused on the personalities.
The demoralized left is upset that it misread the Chief of Staff–that he’s not a babysitter, but instead a trusted team player of a like mind with his boss.
Rationalized hatchet job … And a stretch at that. This man has paid hisdues. Just what’s your rank, boot?
John Kelly? Is that you? Greatest comment ever for its total lack of insight and understanding of the arguments in the article. With an insane flourish of totalitarianism. Kudos.
Hey Jon, CNN called about a seat on one of their Trump hate fest panels they call journalism… if ever there was a perfect fit!
SRV, actually, this differs from the CNN line a great deal. According to the CNN Worldview, John Kelly is one of the only “rational grown-ups” in the room who can save us from Trump going nuts. According to this article, in key ways, Kelly is just as bad as POTUS.
What disgraceful article by a Hillary stooge.
“We just can’t trust the American people to make those types of choices … Government has to make those choices for people.”
– Crooked Hillary (Received millions in bribes from Russia)
Man, you are a one trick pony. We already know what Clinton said since you post it repeatedly. Why not counter what the author actually wrote about?
I’d say that Gen. Kelly has been dragged down to the level of the creature he’s working for. That seems to be the presidential impersonator’s greatest talent; bringing out the worst in people and dividing the country ever further.
The best comment is Lori’s below, and your piece makes a lot of good points. But I have to call you out on this bullshit Democrat draft-glorification. I keep seeing this turd circling the bowl but it never gets any tastier. The draft is not some ideal democratic institution — it is a Communist sort of forced labor for the common good, egged on by the rich because here they’re exempt. It is simply a way to force people to work for below market wage to save budget to give to the rich in lower taxes. The Pentagon hates it because they hate cut-rate anything — and who can blame them? Having bottom of the barrel labor you can’t fire would be awful for a supermarket — it’s worse when most people are born cowards and are by instinct and good sense completely unsuited to military work. It’s worse than that if you have a coward somewhere behind you with an automatic weapon and a really keen set of ears. Also, the military tends to value loyalty, but what is loyalty? The principle of a just war is that when you are forced by no choice of your own to commit violence or die, you fight back against your oppressor. For the draftee, that is the Pentagon. The officers probably still remember the fraggings from the last time there was a draft.
Wnt, you nailed it perfectly, and I agree with your statement that the draft’s not some ideal democratic institution, but a Communist sort of forced labor for the common good, egged on by the rich, because here, they’re exempt. That’s so true. Indeed, the Pentagon hates the draft because they hate cut-rate anything .. and, who can blame them, eh? It’s worse when most people are born cowards and are by instinct and good sense completely unsuitable for military work.
The military, as you said and I agree, tends to value loyalty. but what’s loyalty? The principle of a just war is that when you’re forced by no choice of your own to commit violence or die, you fight back against your oppressor. For the draftee, that’s the Pentagon .. The officers probably still remember the fraggings from the last time there was a draft (Vietnam).
“War is Hell.” ~ Gen. Tecumseh Sherman, 1864
Loves America and hates Americans isn’t really a contradiction. America is an abstraction; Americans are the reality.
It only visibly contradicts when one’s actually helping run the country, Duce, supposedly protecting national interests. In the past we’ve demanded better pretenders in these leadership roles, but the major party candidates in the last presidential election proved those days are definitely on the wane.
Wonder why Schwarz didn’t call Kelly deplorable ?
Wait so John Kelly’s son didnt actually die in Afghanistan but instead worked a civilian job he “hates so much”?
John Kelly is a disgrace, it’s disturbing that Someone with his views has a platform in today’s society, that bigotry, lies, and racism is acceptable for one working in the highest office that is supposed to protect each and every citizen, is a reflection of how low Trump has brought this Country.
..OMG you have drank the whole damn bottle of kool-aid….
Linda is a disgrace, it’s disturbing that a slut with her holes has a platform in today’s society, that bigotry, prostitution, lies, and racism is acceptable for one working in the every cheap bar that is supposed to keep sluts out of sight and every slut is a reflection of how low Linda has become in this Country.
Just want to point out there is no need to use slurs. She stated her point without using them, why can’t you?
Because this comment section has become a cesspool.
Legitimately the most laughably awful, rambling and deranged article on any subject I’ve read in my four decades of life, written by someone who must have degrees in Marxism from all the leading anti-Western universities.
And re: your most recent tweet (“American culture raised me, like everyone white, to fear black people. I had to think my way out of that.”) – Are you white, sir? Or from the tribe that sometimes likes to call itself white in order to attack and undermine whites more assiduously?
Since I can’t respond on Twitter due to not being a user, here’s something for you to look up in the DOJ’s interracial crime stats compiled and presented a few years ago by one of your presumed heroes, Eric Holder: In America, blacks commit a crime called aggravated assault on whites at around 200 times the rate that whites commit it on them. (Also, black women commit homicide in America at a higher rate than white men, but I digress. An idealistic journalist with a capital J like you shouldn’t let himself get bogged down by inconvenient stats like those.) Today’s mass shooter was, per his Facebook, a rabidly atheistic CNN lover who chose to kill Christians on Antifa’s “#Resistance” weekend on purpose. (He also had distinctively Muslim facial hair in his most recent pic… just like the “white” guy who killed Chris Kyle, but again I digress.) As for the growing consensus that he was in Antifa, I don’t know or even care, but he certainly was no right-winger or patriot of any kind.
Perhaps you could do some revolutionary investigative journalism from inside your nearest housing project or madrasa, since people like you are fixated on receiving acceptance from “marginalized” people like them. Those marginalized non-white people, of course, make up ~90% of the world’s population and commit almost 100% of its violent crime and oppression of LGBTs & women. The Intercept does some good reporting, but I’m glad it has radicals like Schwarz on its masthead to instantly signify to readers just how far-left its ideology is. ‘Twould be a shame if impressionable Millenials thought this was a centrist site.
Well, count me as one “impressionable millenial” who goes on here knowing exactly how “far left” this website is and basks in it…
He is correct, and there are a I’d say a million current and former Marines who absolutely agree with him, and another 40,000,000 who agree with him too..
Kelly is nothing more than another Trump stooge. Without
large money. His Marine service and General status have been disgraced by his Trump mendacity, love fest.
Just another jerk off, like his snatch grabbing Presidente’.
That’s pretty much true of everyone in this country now isn’t it?
As I see it, the single largest problem with the military (other than the political leaders) is the lack of honesty admitting when they’ve made mistakes. Kelly may not see them, but any decent, honest person with 10 cents of US History studies can and does.
The military is one of the few organizations in the US that’s accountable to itself and the American people. Every other organization is smoke and mirrors. FYI the military doesn’t decide when it goes to war… I’ll let you guess who that’s up to.
Accountable to itself? Don’t make me laugh. Tell me, how many officers went to jail because of Abu Graib? Was it the civilian leadership that forced the military to use chemical weapons in Vietnam? The list is practically endless. For the latest update on self accountability, just check the most recent denial that bombing and drone attacks are killing innocents.
As to the military deciding when it goes to war, there is an element of truth in what you say. But it is not so simple: the military sits in the National Security Council, thereby having a direct voice in the setting of policy, and it and its contractors lobby hard to make itself extremely well funded, better by far than any other country, and indeed better than all our potential adversaries combined. That constituency feeds the myopia of our foreign policy decision process, and so it is not correct to portray them as innocent servants who have no say in their role.
Laughable. If it were truly accountable, they would have to admit that the proxy war strategy has failed. That killing Kennedy to continue the Vietnam War was at the height of lunacy and betrayal. Instead, they continue to withhold and break the law by keeping those documents out of public view.
Right, sometimes political nut jobs like “W” tell the lies to get us to play ball, but the troops were well on their way prior to Colin Powell’s presentation to the UN. Accountable? Where’s the Generals who sat up and called that spade a spade to their employers, the American people?
BALONEY (just a few hand-picked examples)
“The military is one of the few organizations in the US that’s accountable . . . “: What a joke! Like, when they failed to prosecute a single officer for the scandal at Abu Graib, or honestly report the number of innocents killed by their drone strikes and bombing raids? Or how they categorize anyone they kill as an ‘enemy combatant’, without regard to actual status? Some accountability!
And as for deciding when it goes to war, it’s not like they are not engaged in policy decisions as full members of the National Security Council, or that they are not continuously engaged in lobbying on Capital Hill. Or that their civilian cohorts, the “I” in “MIC”, do not lobby for war as well. It has been a long time – a hundred years perhaps – since the US military was not actively engaged in encouraging the politicians to use military force as the preferred instrument of foreign policy.
This article articulates the separation or dissonance of veterans and civilians. It’s no longer the have and have-nots, but those who have served and those who haven’t.
“Americans love being an armchair quarterback,” I read, somewhere.
Not to nit pick, but I think the dissonance is between the active military and civilians. Lots of veterans, and not only of my generation, view the military as an unfortunate necessity, to be used only rarely, in times of perilous emergency. The last time of perilous emergency ended in the late summer of 1945.
What do you expect from a member of the Irish Mafia. Racist Skkkumbags who promote each other in the US Military not because they are smart and deserving but because they are Irish. The KG B agent Flynn was a member of this cabal of crooks and racist slimeballs. These white boys have been playing Amerikkka since Jamestown. Back in Ireland they would have been eating shit with British boot on their neck. Filthy lying bastards have no honour or shame. Irish dogs from Boston …what can go wrong when it comes to the Trump white supremashit military junta in the Whitey House.
Interesting that you accuse Flynn of being a racist in your racist post.
Omg, why oh why do I even bother reading this crap? The only constant is change, but all change isn’t good. Allowing abortion to be legal, definitely was not a move forward in our cultural development. I lack the patience to pick apart this whole exercise in idiocy, but cmon people. Are there actually people, in America, who believe this crap?
SCOTUS rulings don’t abort babies, people abort babies.
i’d say that he doesn’t like his countrymen, even though he pretends to love the country, his sorry ass should be fired. another example of a trumper appointment. ciao!
Nice try at a cheap shot, Schwartz. Simply put, Kelly was disgusted with the obvious setup laid out by Rep. Wilson, and how she deliberately exploited the grieving widow of a fallen soldier. I think you know it, and you’re down there in the sewer with her.
She’s not exploiting anyone. She is a longtime family friend. She was asked by Mrs Johnson to accompany the family to meet the remains of Sargent Johnso, whom she had mentored all his childhood . Your racism is showing in that you automatically name call her even though like orangeaid and disgusting faux 4 Star lowlife know nothing about her except what lives in your moldy minds. An intelligent person would bother to be decent enough to tea to inform themselves before making fools of themselves and spewing hatred. But don’t let the little fact that it’s a lie stop you. ‘Moron’
Do yourself a huge favor. Pull up your panties and get out of the way. Irish-Catholic Marine Corps Mustang Full General 4 star flag from Brighton-Boston. Please save yourself, hide with your mommy, maybe Kelly will spare your life.
REALLY
SUCH A CLASSLESS WRITUNG
WHO AUTHORED THIS ARTICLE
DID the author loss a child in protecting this country?
Was the author in the US military and achieve a general or equivalent status?
Classless truly classless
NASTY JUST LIKE HIS BOSS
John Kelly should know the feeling’s mutual.
What a SHIT story! The person that wrote this piece certainly has the right to do so and while it doesn’t necessarily make them traitor but it does in fact make them a tremendous piece of SHIT! Kelly just clearly pointed out the facts and the truth and just how far down the toilet are morals in this country have gone so I’m sure that lots of Americans that like it the way it is and would love to read this piece but there are an awful lot of us that don’t like it the way it is and that is why Donald Trump is president!
Morality is sujective……please provide objective evidence to support your claim?
Morality is subjective but its implications are not. So if you wanna live by your own morality, go find some cave somewhere in the mars. Or if you wanna teach the earth population what moral standard you possess, repeal the whole history, do and win countless battle, die million times, and then come to pull some crap out of your rear, fry it, and eat it.
Dribble.
In 1945 as Hitler realized the walls were closing in. He of course could not acknowledge any of the responsibility for the Carnage enabled and encouraged. He of course was the only patriotic German and all other Germans we’re not worthy of him and had to be destroyed for letting down.
He ordered every city, village and Hamlet be declared a fortress and it was all of seniors, women and children ( that was all that was left) to fight the enemy to the death to demonstrate their love of country and Reich.
History may repeat itself but it rhyme’s.
If you are going to criticize Kelly, put 30 years in as a
U. S. Marine.
If Kelly is going to criticize civilians, Kelly should put 30 years in as a civilian.
.
Now, do you see what is wrong with statements like that?
Seen it, but an officer is a civilian too, but not all civilian is an officer.
Now, do you see what is wrong with non-sense like yours?
stop being a racist pig. There’s stuff I don’t agree with what’s going on but I respect people’s opinions and views. You might as well go live in one of those countries that has your view(my way or die)!
Everyone aging says that kind of thing, reminiscing. Being here today is fact that things were so not great then, or we would not have gotten out and away!
That’s because most Americans are unworthy of him. I’ve never seen as many stupid people in this world than I have encountered in America and I have been many places. Who else builds an Arc as a themepark? Who else worships celebrities like we do? Very difficult to have a meaningful conversation with anyone in this country and it has nothing to do with politics.
You’re condemnation of ALL Americans makes you just as ignorant as the people whom you rightfully condemn, i.e. those who blindly believe everything the ARC theme park throws at them. To be so undiscerning in your assessment of US citizens (NOT Americans, because Canadians and Mexicans can also claim to be from this continent) is to repeat the lack of thinking you have illustrated. Apparently you hold yourself in such high regard that it must sting to not be able to find another worthy of being blessed by your brilliance. It must be so lonely at the top. You have my pity.
I said most Americans not all, so don’t misquote, and yes, I do hold myself in high regard. Since when has that become such a bad thing? I’ll tell you…….American victim culture holds suspect ANYONE who does not subscribe to the victimhood narrative spewed by politicians and the media. Herd mentality at its finest. Go graze in the pasture fool.
A tourist, painting with a very broad brush. Typical.
Because it applies broadly. Moreover, it’s difficult to talk about everyone individually ( like what Tom says, what Jenny says, what bob believes, what andy thinks ….etc.)
There’s one more piece and I love this article because it’s almost there.
It’s the way John Kelly thinks is dying . It’s white and male supremacy , but it’s Clintonism and Trump and his ilk too . It’s baby boomers and old white liberals .
It’s a perception of America that largely doesn’t exist anymore in reality . And Trump is the mascot of cognitive dissonance . Trump says I will restore a world to the Kelly’s of this world that makes sense. He can’t, Trump himself doesn’t make sense in 2017.
This is my favorite part of the intercept: the broad cultural Analysis. Keep going down this road. Thanks
What planet is Kelly living on. EVERY DAY is veterans day in this country. Our sporting events are started with a jingoistic orgy that salutes our troops to no end. Our airwaves are bombarded with references to the troops and we thank them profusely. We have military appreciation day at any and every civic event held in damn near any town in America. I’m waiting for “Military only” parking spots next to the handicap ones. If we kissed the troops ass any more we’d suffocate. Please general, stop with this bullshit that we don’t appreciate that you and our huggable troops are fighting off all the “terrorists” that we have created. We do. Thank You, Thank you Thank you.
And which branch of military service did you serve in? I served to protect your constitutional rights. I appreciate your thankyous. That said, however, there are many citizens who have no moral compass and in fact think that we who served are fools.
I did 3 years in the Army from 1973-76. My MOS was 11B, that’s infantry. Don’t tell me about any hogwash about protecting my constitutional rights. And when people thank me for my service I tell them to kiss my a**.
You tell ’em, rick! I was USN, O3, and I feel exactly as you do. I like von Schlieffen’s motto: “Great accomplishments, small display. More substance than appearance”. With our military, and our politicians, it’s just exactly the opposite.
I agree. I met some British soldiers a few years back. This particular group has Brits, Scots, Middle Eastern and other nationalities mixed in. They were constantly amazed at how much Americans demonstrate loyalty and appreciation to our troops. They said in some places in their home countries they can’t even get into some bars and restaurants if they have their uniforms on, soldiers are that badly viewed. My own family is quite patriotic so it’s annoying to hear this attitude from him.
Exactly! I get so tired of the Veteran worship. It’s like we have become a fetish for the politicians wanting easy political points and the dumb trotting out Vets for any old reason. I feel uncomfortable when people tell me thank you for your service. It always feels hollow. USN ’09-’13
Interesting that Kelly became disillusioned before Obama was president. Perhaps never ending war does that.
It’s sad that most of our Politicians living in America Are not “Original Americans” As that Status can Only be claimed by American Indians,Poto Ricans (who are American Indians) and Eskimos. Read your History Kelly you are not an American Neither is 45.
A weepy article by weaklings. Kelly is disenfranchised by the fact that America is weak and filled with the weak. People who complain about working, who complain about not getting enough handouts and that the federal government doesn’t do enough to make life easier. Which isn’t the government’s job.. that’s why he generally loathes America’s citizens today, which I agree with. Most of us vets who serve hate civilians. You guys complain about your soy latte that was made wrong or about how you’re not paid enough or whatever. Then you go put into 10x the energy to get that business shutdown rather than go home and make a soy latte yourself and do it right or even better, start your own coffee business that is to your high standards and outdo the competition. That’s the American standard. Competition, out doing others who deserve it. But no, everyone is now a freeloader crying for a handout and free crap. And by that virtue, what America is makes me sick as well.
You’re welcome to leave anytime, Jerry.
A man with common sense that is not about me. Thank you Jerry.
we have the worst labor laws of any post-industrial countries because of bootlickers like you. But yea, go ahead and equate any attempts of reforms to soy lattes if that makes you feel better than everyone else while you do your master’s bidding, clearly that’s all you’re after here
A cabinet of generals: Trump appoints John Kelly to lead Department of Homeland Security
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/12/08/kell-d08.html
from December:
The Great Transformation: From the Welfare State to the Imperial Police State
https://petras.lahaine.org/the-great-transformation-from-the-welfare-state-to-the-imperial-police-state/
The Politics of Military Ascendancy
http://petras.lahaine.org/b2-img/PetrasPoliticsMilitaryAscendancy.pdf
I defended John Kelly until I realize he is not a man of fidelity, integrity or honor. That saddens me because as a veteran myself, I expected better from him.
This is best article I’ve seen in a long time . This is where the minutia of dirty wars ( I didn’t read the book ) seems to lead towards . The analysis of how the military changed and how the internal us populations perception of the military changed is super useful . Please more of this : the bigger picture / cultural analysis . The weeds of who killed who I find tiresome . America changed, Kelly’s version ( maybe Trump and Clifton’s version of their country) is old . Yay.
Kelly espouses Marxist views? How very Goebbels of you. He lost a son defending Afghanis from a detestable virus you’ve never experienced first hand, and a son who made sure the enemies of this nation who took 3,000 lives in one day, did not have a base of comfort and freedom from which to operate.
Gratitude is overcome by cynicism in journalism, and nothing is more evident of that than this particular article.
Kelly is the accepted apologist for an authoritarian zeolot because he subscribes to the same philosophy that only the few select leaders (sic–in name only) are capable of reading the national will of the people. He lost his credibility in his attack on the Congresswoman and failed to apologize for his error. A leader with no followers is merely a man out for a stroll.
John kelly is the typical white republican male , zero empathy, zero sympathy, very little common sense and yet still can’t shut his foaming mouth yapper to learn anything!! And republicans have the nerve to wonder why most minorities can’t stand tnem!!
Good piece, but you take it a little too far. I suspect, for instance, that patriots like the Israeli general who said he didn’t hate Arabs probably hated them more than his own people. He just feels closer to his own people and finds their inability to live up to his standards deplorable, to coin a phrase.
I can’t really judge that particular individual, so I might be wrong about him, but I bet most people who say such things just regard foreigners as too low to even be worth judging.
This is what he said in full:
“Just note that I don’t hate Arabs. On the contrary. Personally, I am much more at ease with them, and especially with the Bedouin, than with Jews. Those Arabs we haven’t yet spoilt are proud people, they are irrational, cruel and generous. It’s the Yids that are all twisted.”
Interesting quote, a bit essentialist in his thinking and if I were an Arab I don’t think I’d be happy with the “ compliment”. But I agree he doesn’t fit my judgment.
My own experience with “ patriots” of the conservative variety is that they despise liberal and leftist Americans (they don’t make a distinction), but they hate foreign demon figures more. These days that would be Muslims. American Muslims are counted as foreign. I actually have an acquaintance in mind here.
Liberals and lefties have their own sets of bigotries, but this is getting too long.
Why do leftist insist on twisting the truth to fit your narrative. None of this is what he meant by this at all.
Left twist to fit a narrative? Maybe you should go back and read the article again and stop making everything a left right issue. It’s lame,
Like his boss, Gen. Kelly thinks he is above reproach; even when using outright falsehoods to smear other Americans. I expected a lot more from a Marine General, but then again I’m biased.
Semper Fi.
Me too devil dog, well said brother well said.
I love the propaganda. I missed the part where the general hates Americans.
“We just can’t trust the American people to make those types of choices … Government has to make those choices for people.”
– Crooked Hillary (Received millions in bribes from Russia)
I appreciate your judgement that, yes, Dennis Hastert was a child molester, but he had the personal integrity to relay that conversation with 100% accuracy.
GREAT write up Jon…. as always.
IMPORTANT……
I started posting comments under”rs” when Jon started writing for The Intercept. I do not know if The Intercept software recognises duplicate “sign in” names.
This is what I wrote in April 2015
rs
April 16 2015, 12:04 p.m.
GREAT!
Go Jon Go…..
https://theintercept.com/2015/04/16/welcome-unofficial-sources/
“rs” TODAY at 9.13 am, the comment on this post is NOT ME.
“The Intercept”, please make a note of it.
Michael Parenti says, “[W]e should stop saying ”we” do this and ”we” do that, since we really mean policymakers within the national security establishment who represent a particular set of class interests. Too many otherwise capable analysts have this habit of referring to ”we.” It is a shorthand way of saying ”U.S. national security state leaders” but it is a misleading use of a pronoun. The point is of more than semantic significance. Those who keep saying ”we” are more likely to treat nations as the basic unit of analysis in international affairs and to ignore class interests. They are more likely to presume that a community of interest exists between leaders and populace when usually it does not. The impression left is that we are all responsible for ”our” policy, a position that takes the heat off the actual policymakers and evokes a lot of misplaced soul-searching by well-meaning persons who conclude that we all should be shamed and saddened by what ”we” are doing in the world.”
Kelly: “..it’s almost inexplicable why anyone would join the military, given how awful the U.S. is, including the “great pressure from our society to sit it out and not get involved.”
Well said, General! The military is no longer a place for good people; it is an organization led by self-proclaimed “elites” like yourself, who are liars, thieves and murderous warmongers. There is no honor to be had by participating in state-sponsored terrorism.
Wow, you are certainly misinformed on the overall situation of today’s American military. Just because the majority of our military shares conservative values does not make them “elitists”, “warmongers”, “liars”, and “thieves”. What you’re seeing and basing your opinion on are the few bad apples that have somehow infiltrated our selection process(es) and whose stories have made it to the mainstream media news.
Agree to disagree.
And kids conned into risking their bodily integrity, their sanity and their very lives because there are no civilian jobs for them.
We are being run by evil.
Seconded.
Great article Jon
Kelly, like many, finds it easier to glorify an idealized (and abstract) concept of “America” than understand (and perhaps criticize) the real and complicated policies that the US embodies and enforces. The same people who swell with patriotism at the sight of an American flag often are the first to condemn (with legal penalty) anyone who burns that flag, even though we have a constitutional right to do so. Flag=sacred Constitution=irrelevant?
My husband is a Vietnam veteran. His 23 year old son (special ops Air-force Sgt Derek C. Hughes) gave his life during the Desert Storm operation. Our family has sacrificed much but for what? Was it worth his young life to protect U.S. oil interests when during that same time period nearly 5000 electric cars in California (manufactured by Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Nissan, and Toyota) were destroyed by crushing (or donated to museums like relics from a shipwreck).
Young people today aren’t cynical about our country for no reason. Before Kelly can lament the lack of public zeal to enlist and perhaps die for our country he should be willing to articulate convincing reasons for engagement abroad besides protection of corporate interests that enrich the few at the expense of the many.
Patriotism isn’t just a sentimental reaction to flags and symbols and a longing for a bygone era of American prosperity and conformity. Asking people to serve and possibly die for their country requires articulating the the aims and values we hope to achieve, aims that benefit our society as whole and not just the narrow interests of a few.
Well said Lori.
Thank you.
Wow. Really well said – and powerful, too.
Lori, thank you. That’s extremely well said.
Wow. First..Thank You to your husband for his service, and Sorry for your loss. That was so very well said. That is the way so many of us feel. Thank you again.
As a kid in the 50’s I refused to say the pledge because I thought it was a form of brainwashing. The church also brainwashes the populace also.And then the military has the perfect “fruit” to mold our future society and teach them to hate. So why is it so unusual for leaders to look down their noses at “their people”?
power tends to corrupt those that hold it
You forgot to include Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables”
aye!