Fw: Democratic Candidate Pete Buttigieg

Good information 'just in case' to use in general election

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nancy Turlington" <turlingtonn@hotmail.com>
To: "Nancy Turlington" <turlingtonn@hotmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 09, 2020 8:09 PM
Subject: Democratic Candidate Pete Buttigieg


When Mayor Pete Buttigieg talks about his military service, his opponents fall silent,
the media fall in love, and his political prospects soar. Veterans roll their eyes.

CNN's Jake Tapper asked Mr. Buttigieg Sunday if President Trump "deserves some credit"
for the strike that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani. "No," the candidate replied, "not
until we know whether this was a good decision and how this decision was made." He questioned
whether "it was the right strategic move" and said his own judgment "is informed by the
experience of having been on one of those planes headed into a war zone."
But Mr. Buttigieg's stint in the Navy isn't as impressive as he makes it out to be. His
2019 memoir is called "Shortest Way Home," an apt description of his military service. He
entered the military through a little-used shortcut: direct commission in the reserves. The
usual route to an officer's commission includes four years at Annapolis or another military
academy or months of intense training at Officer Candidate School. ROTC programs send
prospective officers to far-flung summer training programs and require military drills during
the academic year. Mr. Buttigieg skipped all that—no obstacle courses, no weapons training, no
evaluation of his ability or willingness to lead. Paperwork, a health exam and a background
check were all it took to make him a naval officer.
He writes that his reserve service "will always be one of the highlights of my life,
but the price of admission was an ongoing flow of administrativia." That's not how it's
supposed to work. The paperwork isn't the price of admission but the start of a long, grueling
test.
Combat veterans have grumbled for decades about the direct-commission route. The
politically connected and other luminaries who receive immediate commissions are disparaged as
"pomeranian princes." Former Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus became a Naval Reserve officer
in 2018 at age 46. Hunter Biden, son of the former vice president, accepted a direct commission
but was discharged after one month of service for failing a drug test.
Mr. Buttigieg was assigned to a comfortable corner of military life, the Naval Station
in Great Lakes, Ill. Paperwork and light exercise were the order of the day. "Working
eight-hour days," he writes, was "a relaxing contrast from my day job, and spending time with
sailors from all walks of civilian life, was a healthy antidote to the all absorbing work I had
in South Bend." He calls it "a forced, but welcome, change of pace from the constant activity
of being mayor."
During a November debate, Mr. Buttigieg proclaimed: "I have the experience of being
commanded into a war zone by an American president." The reality isn't so grandiose. In 2013,
he writes, he "made sure my chain of command knew that I would rather go sooner than later, and
would rather go to Afghanistan than anywhere else."
Arriving there, he "felt a sense of purpose, maybe even idealism, that can only be
compared to the feeling of starting on a political campaign. I thought back to 2004 and John
Kerry's presidential run, and then remembered that it was during the campaign that I saw the
iconic footage of his testimony as the spokesman for Vietnam Veterans against the War."
The comparison is telling. Mr. Buttigieg has just started his time in a war he says he'
s idealistic about, but he daydreams about John Kerry protesting Vietnam after he got back.
Many veterans detest Mr. Kerry's "iconic" 1971 testimony, in which he slandered American
servicemen. But it did launch a decadeslong political career.
Mr. Buttigieg spent some five months in Afghanistan, where he writes that he remained
less busy than he'd been at City Hall, with "more time for reflection and reading than I was
used to back home." He writes that he would take "a laptop and a cigar up to the roof at
midnight to pick up a Wi-Fi signal and patch via Skype into a staff meeting at home." The
closest he came to combat was ferrying other staffers around in an SUV: In his campaign kickoff
speech last April he referred to "119 trips I took outside the wire, driving or guarding a
vehicle." That's a strange thing to count. Combat sorties in an F-18 are carefully logged.
Driving a car isn't.
After the welcome-home rally, glowing press, a few more years of light service, the
mayor left the reserves. But his bragging rights were assured. Candidate Buttigieg takes every
opportunity to lean in on those months in Afghanistan. Questions ranging from student debt to
Colin Kaepernick to gun control prompt him to reference his military stint, sometimes
indignantly.
"I don't need lessons from you on courage," he lectured former Rep. Beto O'Rourke in an
October debate, "political or personal." Two months later he told Sen. Amy Klobuchar, "Let me
tell you about my relationship to the First Amendment. It is part of the Constitution that I
raised my right hand and swore to defend with my life. That is my experience, and it may not be
the same as yours, but it counts, Senator, it counts."
Debate moderators and other journalists—hardly a veteran among them—eagerly sell Mr.
Buttigieg's narrative. Debate moderators often point out that he served in Afghanistan and, if
Tulsi Gabbard isn't there, is the only veteran on the stage. When Ms. Gabbard is present, the
moderators seldom mention her military experience, which dwarfs Mr. Buttigieg's.
In our experience, those who did the most in war talk about it the least. Serving in a
support or noncombat role is honorable, but it shouldn't be the basis of a presidential
campaign.
Mr. Kelly, a host at Newsmax TV, served as a jet pilot for the Marine Corps. He was on
active duty, 1991-2000 and in the reserves, 2000-11. Ms. Horgan runs a New York logistics
consulting practice. She served as an active duty Marine officer, 2006-12 and was deployed in
Iraq for 13 months.