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In fairness to Trump (there's a sentence I never thought I'd write...)
"“He said I stood over graves of soldiers and I said: ‘These people are suckers and losers,"
That's technically correct. He did not say those things in public.
Edit I watched the ad, it does not specify that Trump said these things in public, just that he said them which is true.
He said them privately to staff members.
Confirmed by Trump's former Chief of Staff, John Kelly:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/john-kelly-confirms-trump-privately-disparaged-us-service-members-vete-rcna118543
But my favorite quote out of all this is the one that barely gets mentioned:
https://www.axios.com/2023/10/02/trump-troops-fallen-soldiers-john-kelly
Trump saying at a 2017 Memorial Day event in Arlington National Cemetery: "I don't get it. What was in it for them?"
Trump is ENTIRELY transactional. The idea that good men would fight a war for their country purely because it's the right thing to do escapes him entirely.
Sounds like a perfectly reasonable question to me... far more reasonable than simply assuming the people who perpetrated the US's colonialist mass-murder campaigns in the third world was simply "good men" (supposedly) "doing the right thing."
Good job making Trump sound more rational than you, hero.
Trump doesn't understand the question because he doesn't understand doing things for the betterment of anyone but himself.
For most of history, you didn't ask "what's in it for me" when the king/prime minister/ The Church/ or President came asking (country irrelevant). That's a relatively new luxury due to perspective of the digital age and disagreements with (the US) Government due to transparency.
For most of history "what's in it for you" was actually getting fed and clothed better than the average peasant. Serving the king was what was in it because you didn't have to sleep in pig shit and milk the cows every morning. You'd actually get fed for mealtimes instead of playing the barter game all summer and fall just to have enough food to store in salt barrels for winter. And even better, if you tickled enough enemy hearts with your pointy stick there WAS some land and money for you, provided you survived.
Some countries through history also revere their veterans (with actual respect and benefits) so military service itself was the honor. While I understand it's a dramatization -the beginning of Disney's Mulan is a great display of it. Her father is it is '60s or '70s and has already served once and has a bad leg. The emperor sends out a call for war and the guards show up in town. When they call his name he sets aside his cane and picks up the summons because that's what you did. It is what was expected of him and he did it without complaint.
You're arguing for both sides of the argument.
First you argue that people obeyed rulers because they didn't question authority.
Then you argue people obeyed rulers for their own benefit and material gain.