Real Clear Politics 8/9/2022

 

Macgregor: Trump Had a Romantic View Of The Military, Thought He Was Dealing With People Like MacArthur And Patton

Posted By Ian Schwartz

On Date August 9, 2022

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2022/08/09/macgregor_trump_had_a_romantic_view_of_the_military_thought_he_was_dealing_with_people_like_macarthur_and_patton.html

Ret. Col. Douglas Macgregor said on Tuesday that President Trump had a romantic view of the military when he expected people like Generals MacArthur and Patton to be in leadership positions. Macgregor told FNC's Laura Ingraham the armed forces are in the worst shape since the 1970s and couldn't win a fight a war against a paper bag and we should do everything in our power to obstruct a military that rewards "sycophant" yes-men like Gen. Mark Milley.

DOUGLAS MACGREGOR: It is subversion of presidential authority. It is also destruction of civil-military relations that we have enjoyed in this country, almost unbroken for the last 100 years at least.

Unfortunately, I would like to say that General Milley is an isolated case, but I don't think he is, and I think he's a product of the selection process that favors the sycophant, the yes-men, and really does not focus and shape on demonstrated character, competence or intelligence.

But we've now made another step over the last 20 years from just picking sycophants to actually insisting the sycophants, the yes men assimilate and internalize this wokeism and all of these bad policies that are currently destroying the military establishment, and he is a perfect example of it.

I just think he decided that his future is aligned with -- you keep calling it the deep state, I just call it the military-industrial-Congressional complex, I think he sees his future there. He doesn't believe that anyone can come into this city as President Trump tried to do and try to change it.

LAURA INGRAHAM: Trump had kind of a romantic vision, you said this on my podcast today, he had a romantic vision, which you kind of have to admire of the generals from the World War II era.

MACGREGOR: The only generals that President Trump ever mentioned in my presence were MacArthur and Patton, he may have mentioned Eisenhower, perhaps Grant and Lee. I didn't know anything about this allegation of German generals.

I think that he thought that he was dealing with men in uniform who were of the same character and cut of those men that I just mentioned like MacArthur, Patton, and Eisenhower. And obviously that is not the case at all. There is no integrity, there is no understanding of their duty.

I cannot imagine any general officer coming out of the Oval Office and then picking up the phone and talking to a journalist about what he discussed with the president. Marshall never did it. I don't know of any Chiefs of Staff who behaved in that way...

Somebody said tyranny like hell is not easily overcome, and warned us about summer soldiers and sunshine patriots. Well, we've had too many of them. We need the real thing now, somebody needs to stand up and say we will not fund you anymore until you change these things. And frankly we know that they are not going to change it. It doesn't matter. We should do everything in our power to obstruct them.

INGRAHAM: Can we beat China?

MACGREGOR: Listen, I don't think we could fight our way out of a wet paper bag right now.