Why This Fallen SEAL’s Love of Democracy Shames Trump |
When a reporter asked this week what he had to say to the families of the nearly 100 Americans killed in the Ukraine war, President Donald Trump managed barely a stammer of vague sympathy.
“It’s so sad that a thing like that would happen,” Trump, 79, said of the volunteers who died opposing a dictator he has too often praised and never forthrightly condemned for violating the principles of freedom and justice that made America great at its inception.
Trump allowed that “some are celebrated people, they’re very celebrated.” But to have named them would have been a step toward also naming what motivated them. And that would have also been a step toward naming the Russian leader responsible for the killing. Trump instead chose to once again speak fondly of Vladimir Putin.
Among the names we should all remember and celebrate is retired Chief Petty Officer Michael “Mike” Meoli. He grew up in Southern California and spent more than four decades as a U.S. Navy SEAL, firefighter/paramedic with the San Diego fire rescue, and the city’s police SWAT team. He also answered the call from the FDNY for firefighters from other cities to bolster the attendance at their many funerals after 9/11. He saw combat in Iraq. He had remained in the Navy reserves and was 42 when he was activated to full combat duty as a SEAL. He was subsequently an international instructor in tactical combat casualty care, ranging from Sri Lanka to South Korea to Pakistan.
In the meantime, Meoli resumed serving with........