https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/donald-trump-accuses-us-military-leadership-of-seeking-to-start-wars-to-profit-defence-contractors/news-story/66122eaccad484d3335de75be1e482ba
But CNN national security reporter Ryan Brown called Mr Trump’s
comments an “unprecedented public attack by a sitting US president on
the leadership of the US military”, and said comparisons to Mr
Eisenhower’s address were off the mark.
“Some folks really ought
to read what President Eisenhower actually said,” he tweeted. “While
they are both critical of the military industrial complex, nowhere does
Eisenhower actually accuse military leaders of engaging in shooting wars
to boost profits for firms
Speaking on CNN, retired army lieutenant general Mark Hertling said
it was interesting that Mr Trump had attempted to deny accusations he
had insulted the military “by insulting the military”.
“It was
insulting to me as a former general,” he said. “As a former soldier,
going into combat the military-industrial complex was not even a portion
of my thought process. All I wanted was the equipment and the resources
to fight the battles.”
Mr Hertling also pushed back on Mr Trump’s “endless wars” jab, which
he took as a criticism of how US conflicts in the Middle East had been
run by military leadership.
“We are told what to do by our elected
officials, so if there’s bad strategy, bad involvement in foreign wars,
it’s because the political masters have sent us there to do their
bidding,” he said. “We attempt in every way possible to conduct the
operations.”
Mr Hertling said Mr Trump was attempting to sow
division. “This is kind of like fighting an insurgency – President Trump
has already gone after the intelligence community by separating their
leaders from those who are in the trenches,” he said.
“He has
separated the FBI, claiming the leaders are terrible but everybody in
the FBI is good, now he’s attempting to do the same thing with the
military. ‘The generals are all bad, they’re all working for the
military industrial complex, but all you soldiers still love me,
right?’”
