Senator Jon Ossoff went on MS NOW’s “The Briefing” this week and delivered what might be the most predictable critique yet of President Trump’s handling of the Iran conflict, accusing the administration of viewing American service members as disposable “pawns” in a political game, as reported by Ossoff during the broadcast. It’s the kind of attack that writes itself when your party has spent years perfecting the art of moral outrage, but Ossoff’s specific grievance deserves a closer look because it reveals more about Democratic messaging strategy than it does about Trump’s actual conduct.
The Georgia Democrat’s primary complaint centered on fundraising emails sent by the Trump campaign that featured photos of flag-draped coffins returning from the Middle East, according to Ossoff’s statements on the show. Ossoff called it “the most callous and disgraceful disregard for the sacrifice that these service members have made,” suggesting that using such imagery for political purposes demonstrates that Trump and his team “really do just view those who wear the uniform as pawns.” He made sure to add the requisite appeal to his home state’s military credentials, noting that Georgia is “a military state” and that this “kind of disrespect for the military does not go over well in Georgia,” as he said on “The Briefing.”
But here’s what Ossoff conveniently omitted from his tearful performance. The President of the United States has a constitutional duty as Commander-in-Chief to make decisions about military action, as outlined in Article II of the U.S. Constitution, and those decisions inevitably involve risk to American lives. The question isn’t whether Trump acknowledges that risk, it’s whether the mission is justified and whether the men and women carrying it out believe in its purpose; every president in modern history has faced the same awful arithmetic of warfare, and every one of them has had to communicate those losses to the American people while maintaining political support for their policies, based on historical records from the White House archives.
What’s really happening here is that Democrats are scrambling to find an angle on the Iran conflict that doesn’t make them sound like they’re rooting against American success. Ossoff’s approach, channeling outrage through the lens of military respect, is designed to give him cover for opposing the administration’s broader strategy while still appearing pro-troop, as evidenced by his comments on the show. And it’s a tightrope act that requires ignoring the fact that many of those same service members volunteered for exactly this kind of mission, and that their families might actually appreciate a Commander-in-Chief who speaks honestly about the stakes rather than sanitizing their loss for political comfort.
Providence watches over the bold.
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