This is what the foul dude in our white house is truly about.
Funny thing as fate would have it, I’m in a unique position to weigh in on this. After I retired from the Marine Corps in 2009, I got a job as a contractor training International Military people in Leadership, Ethics and many other military subjects, but the main focus has been on Leadership and Ethics.
Over the last 10 years I have developed 100’s of hours of curriculum and provided instruction on these subjects to well over a 1000 students (Ranking from Cpl to Major General) from over a 100 different countries. The last time I added it up I have over 5,000 hours of podium time teaching and at least as many additional hours in professional discussion groups with students and guest speakers from all areas of our government, I.E. active duty military, retired military, DOD, State Dept, etc, etc.
While I have conducted most of this at the NETSAFA International Training Center (NITC), here in Pensacola, FL, I have also deployed to several countries to conduct instruction as the lead instructor of Mobile Education and Training Teams (METTs) in their home countries namely: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Sierre Leone, Madagascar 2x, Comoros 2x, Trinidad and Antigua.
Starting in 2015 when Trump started to run for office, he generated a lot of interest and questions from students. At first the overwhelming attitude was that he was just a joke. Many students actually thought he wasn’t really running, but it was just part of a TV show, etc. However, many other students who had lived through revolutions and c**ps in their own countries expressed concern that he was displaying very similar speech and methods they had heard from tyrants dictators. In the end everyone thought he would lose, so it was just more like curious gossip than anything else. People reading this need to realize that in today’s connected world, even in some very remote areas, people are much better informed about what goes on here than most Americans would ever imagine. Make no mistake, the world is always watching us and they are very interested.
After he won, the attitude among the students changed completely. After that they rarely said anything, or asked questions about him in the classroom. Off line, when we went on trips, over dinner, drinks, etc. They often expressed a lot of (whispered) concern and I actually heard several students (from many different countries) say something like: “How could the United States elect someone like this?” They seemed dumbfounded as to how this could happen? The general view was that they thought we were better than that? You also could sense we lost a lot of high ground in the classroom when trying to teach leadership and especially ethics. Surprisingly though, many thought it was still just a joke, they didn’t think it was real. When I reassured them it wasn’t a joke, they stopped laughing.
As you may guess, it is very tough to preach ethics namely; Integrity, honesty, loyalty, dignity, self-less service, courage, etc. when you have Trump as your national standard bearer. However, as these are all active military duty people, we take the stance that Trump is a civilian and has never served in the military and is from a business/political world. As such he never had to learn and follow the strict rules of integrity, trust, etc. that are essential for military leaders. We preach that the military has higher standards and we do our best to keep politics out of our discussions/classes. Well I do, regrettably other instructors love to engage students in political (and even worse: religious) discussions. Mostly this is to put forward their views (on both the left and the right). I stay away from all those discussions other than to provide factual background to put down the ridiculous rumors and misunderstandings that come up from time to time.
I will say the students from Europe are much more out spoken about this obvious hypocritical dilemma than the students from the Middle East or Africa. It’s because if you know their history and culture of many of these countries, they grew up and still live now in either dictatorships, or something very close to it. Freedom of speech isn’t something they have every had in their homelands and the results of anyone (especially a military person), from speaking anything negative about their leaders, or government will be very harsh. I get the impression that many of them think this is how the situation is here now and hence they are scared to say anything. Many senior students (those that have had long relationships with our military) have expressed concern that our policy overseas is now unpredictable and erratic.
IMO there is no doubt that the United States is now looked at in a lesser light by people of other countries since Trump has been elected. Not that they think the country is about to melt down, start a war, etc. But my sense is that they just don’t have the faith in our system that they once had. No matter where I went (over 40 countries) with the exception of Iraq during the war there, I always found the people to have a lot of respect and affection for our country and people. This was especially true of the people that had been here and experienced it first hand. Make no mistake other countries have no illusions as to our military and/or economic might. Especially those who have been around our military are in awe of what they see. However, when before I think we were held up as a shining example of good in the world, It seems we are looked on more with fear and mistrust more than anything else.
On the other hand just as a comparison, when Obama was president. Our students, especially those from 3rd world countries couldn’t stop talking about him. When ever I told my students about the time I met Obama, it was like telling them you met Jesus Christ. There was a lot of obvious hero worship surrounding Obama, especially as you might guess from the African, Far East and Caribbean students. We routinely take classes to Great Lakes to visit the Navy Boot Camp there for them to witness some training. Which they are always impressed by. During that trip we always spend a day in Chicago seeing the sites. For them the highlight of the trip was always to see the Obama house from behind a barricade, a block away.
BTW, I didn’t v**e for Obama, or Trump (or Clinton). So put what ever bulls**t you’re thinking out of your mind.
This is what the foul dude in our white house is t... (
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