As a lifelong Republican and a retired military officer I have been aligned with the national security establishment. In my senior year of college in the fall of 1962, the Cuban missile crisis was at a critical mass when President John F. Kennedy stood up to Nikita Kruschev and forced him to take the Soviet ballistic missiles out of Cuba.
During my military career, I realized the importance of the work done by our foreign policy officials, national security advisors and congressional leaders through several presidential administrations. I recall President Ronald Reagan exhorting Michail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall before the collapse of the Soviet Union. President G. H. W. Bush led the “Desert Storm” campaign in Iraq when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.
Recently, more than 100 Republican former leaders and military officers have endorsed Kamala Harris as a “principled, serious and “steady leader” our country needs. She has “demonstrated that she can engage in orderly national security decision-making, without the constant drama and turnover of the Trump administration.”
In contrast, Donald Trump’s shambolic and amoral behavior demonstrate a neglect of the essence of constitutional governing.
During Trump’s first term in office, he met with Putin over Russian election interference during the campaign in 2016. He mewled over Putin’s “strong denial” of Russian involvement. Today, Trump has expressed an attitude about, “Putin doing whatever the hell he wants.” It is interesting to watch Putin gaze at Trump with his steely blue eyes while Trump enthusiastically extends his hand in friendship. The Russian disinformation campaign is again in full swing to influence our election.
I would like to have a president who will prosecute the case against Putin’s war crimes in Ukraine. He broke it, he should fix it.
Don Hiddleson, Millcreek
