Readers write
Trump addressed generals. It was a waste of their time.
Fifty-two years ago, I trained at Quantico Marine Corps Base, where American generals recently heard the president and the secretary of defense. After seeing parts of it, if I were one of those generals, I would leave the military.
I did not join the Marines to fight “a war from within,” nor does America have an enemy within. Lethality? Name one country that wants to fight America? What a waste of the generals’ time! Learn to fight in cities? Has the president ever seen a live-fire exercise?
Marines know leaders when they see them. All Marine officers complete The Basic School at Quantico, one of the world’s finest leadership training programs. Each officer learns how to lead an infantry platoon in combat. Each officer ranks each other officer with “peer evaluations” judging leadership. I believe Marines are the only military service where officers are evaluated on the question: “Would you like to serve in combat with this officer?”
I visited Iwo Jima, Vietnam and Korean battlefields with Marine officers who fought there. The 250th Marine Corps birthday is Nov. 10, and I’ve been a Marine for one-fifth of that time.
Marines know leaders when they see them, and I did not see leaders on stage.
DANIEL F. KIRK, KENNESAW
President remaking federal gov’t in his image
President Donald Trump’s speech to the leaders of our military is the latest example of how he, Congress and the Supreme Court are enacting their plan to unwind all the progress our country has made over the past half-century. Their belief that the federal government is the real enemy of the people is evident in every executive order and piece of legislation that passes Congress since he took office.
Threatening to fire and/or demote senior members of our military if they are not ideologically pure is reminiscent of the Soviet Union, and the president puts our nation in danger by doing so. This naked attempt to make our military complicit in his plans to remake the entire federal government in his image is consistent with his view that loyalty to him is more important than competency, thoughtfulness or dedication to the nation and the Constitution.
President Trump is stacking the deck in his favor by weakening any element of the federal government that stands in his way. He attacks any member of the media and legal community who disagrees with him. He uses lawsuits as a cudgel to intimidate his adversaries and is abusing the legal system to take revenge on anyone he feels has wronged him.
By weakening anyone who might challenge him, Trump is positioning himself to have the upper hand the next time voters express their collective preference for a change of leadership in Washington.
MARK P. HUNTER, ATLANTA
Attacking within is first step toward dictatorship
Recently, several right-wing Trump supporters have expressed concerns over the recent attacks on free speech with the rationale that the Dems will retaliate at a later date. I suspect their real concern is the movement toward socialism with an imperial president.
Examples include government ownership of key industries, government dictating hiring/firing for other business, selling access to — or to avoid — the bully pulpit, dictating policy for higher education based on questionable facts, selling for personal gain (crypto) access to U.S. markets and attacking any organization that has negative thoughts on Trump by using the Justice Department based purely on “they don’t like me.”
Attacking (usually with lies) the enemy elites — like science, education, and the media — is always the first step to a dictatorship.
BOB DALTON, LILBURN
