On Memorial Day especially, let’s remember why and how the U.S. military fights

On Memorial Day, we should remember not only the bravery and sacrifice of America’s fighting men and women over more than 240 years but also the honor and decency with which they have defendes our freedoms.

The late senator John McCain, who suffered unimaginable mental and physical torture for five years, choosing not to accept an early release, would say it was the “great honor of my life was to serve in the company of heroes. I’m not a hero.”

McCain, despite his protestations, exemplified heroism, loyalty and honor. The values he upheld are the same that are inculcated in all members of the armed services. David Lapan recently wrote:

"During my three decades in the Marine Corps, as an enlisted marine and officer, on active duty and in the Reserves, I received endless training. Some was devised to instill discipline and inculcate high standards of conduct. Other training stressed the importance of ethics and adherence to laws and regulations. Some of the training was scenario-based, to demonstrate that choices weren’t always easy or clear, particularly in combat. We were taught to ‘choose the hard right over the easy wrong.’ "

And it is because of that adherence to a code of conduct, to the Uniform Code of Military Justice ― including the obligation to punish those who break it ― that the U.S. military retains its reputation, gains the trust of civilians here and abroad, and maintains exquisite discipline. (The UCMJ is in place "'to promote justice, to assist in maintaining good order and discipline in the armed forces [and] to promote efficiency and effectiveness in the military establishment.' Pardoning those who have been accused or convicted of serious crimes would undermine the military-justice system ... Those who fail in their duties and responsibilities must be held accountable for their decisions and actions.") If a president pardons war criminals, he undermines the discipline, the values and the rule of law that are foundational to those defending a constitutional republic.

Enter South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who does what no one running for president (in either the 2016 or 2020 cycle) has had the nerve to do. He calls out President Donald Trump's personal cowardice and lambastes the false machismo by which Trump seeks to hide his shame. Appearing on ABC's "This Week," he had this exchange with Martha Raddatz:

RADDATZ: It is Memorial Day weekend. The president and first lady on Thursday went to Arlington Cemetery. At about the same time you were saying that the president faked his disability to get out of serving in Vietnam. Pretty positive about that?

BUTTIGIEG: Yes. There is no question, I think, to any reasonable observer that the president found a way to falsify a disabled status, taking advantage of his privileged status in order to avoid serving. You have somebody who thinks it's all right to let somebody go in his place into a deadly war and is willing to pretend to be disabled in order to do it. That is an assault on the honor of this country.

RADDATZ: I want to go to comments about ― that the president made about service members who have either been accused of war crimes or convicted of war crimes. He said we teach them to fight and they get treated unfairly, and he is going to look at those cases to see if perhaps they can be pardoned.

BUTTIGIEG: The idea that being sent to war turns you into a murderer is exactly the kind of thing that those of us who have served have been trying to beat back for more than a generation. For a president, especially a president who never served, to say he’s going to come in and overrule that system of military justice undermines the very foundations, legal and moral, of this country. Frankly, his idea that being sent to fight makes you automatically into some kind of war criminal is a slander against veterans that could only come from somebody who never served.

For that alone, we should be grateful Buttigieg is in the race.

Trump's refusal to serve ― his use of wealth and fame to save his own hide and force someone else to serve in his place ― is the ultimate grotesque expression of privilege and cowardice. However, his disgrace becomes a threat to American values when he compensates for his past inadequacies by egging on those who serve (either at home or abroad) to commit acts of moral depravity and crimes of war (e.g., telling police to rough up suspects, cheering for indiscriminate violence against noncombatants, pining for a return to interrogation techniques that we have emphatically outlawed). This is meant to assuage his own shame but, instead, this conduct underscores his unfitness to lead true heroes.

We should express our admiration and gratitude every day, not merely on Memorial Day, for those who have given their last full measure. That must entail providing those currently serving in the military with civilian leadership, including a commander in chief, who will respect and support them and their code of conduct. In turn, that requires removing a commander in chief who undercuts their safety, honor and values.

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