'Reckless' Trump putting himself and troops in danger: ex-Army commander

As the Iran war drags on after five and one-half months, one of the top news stories is the Iranian regime's assassination plot against U.S. President Donald Trump — which, according to reporting in the New York Times and the Washington Post, the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) thwarted in Turkey by using a decoy plane that Trump wasn't really on. Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, in the conservative website The Bulwark, applauds Secret Service agents for keeping Trump alive. But he also argues that Trump's "reckless" approach to the Iran war is creating unnecessary danger for both himself and U.S. troops.

Hertling, who formerly served as commander of U.S. Army Europe, makes his point by looking back on George W. Bush's presidency and the Iraq War.

Bush's decision to go to war with Iraq and overthrow the late Saddam Hussein's far-right dictatorship in 2003 continues to draw scathing criticism. Many of the Bush administration's critics argue that by invading Iraq and overthrowing Hussein — who was known for being a brutal dictator but not a jihadist — they made terrorism worse, not better, in the Middle East.

But Hertling argues that when it came to his own safety, former President Bush didn't take unnecessary chances.

Looking back on the Iraq war of the 2000s, Hertling recalls Bush traveling to Iraq on Thanksgiving to visit the troops.

"President George W. Bush had secretly flown to Iraq to have Thanksgiving dinner with American troops," Hertling remembers. "His aircraft approached in darkness, lights extinguished and window shades drawn, and his pilots used a corkscrew pattern to reduce the possibility of being shot. The secrecy was extraordinary because the danger was extraordinary. President Bush understood that. Nicolle Wallace, who worked in his White House, once told me that Bush had a very small party for that trip, and wouldn't allow her, as the White House communications director, to accompany him. He knew the trip was too dangerous. Yet he went."

The former U.S. Army Europe commander continues, "Bush wasn't reckless. The Secret Service and military planners took every precaution possible. But after assessing the danger, he decided that being with American troops on Thanksgiving was worth accepting personal risk. Bush later explained that he wanted those in harm's way to know their commander in chief — and their country — supported them."

Wallace, a Never Trump conservative, is now one of the top hosts on liberal-leaning MS NOW (formerly MSNBC).

Herlting notes that he "thought about those five days in Baghdad" after hearing about the recent Iranian assassination plot against Trump in Turkey and the use of an Air Force One plane as a "decoy."

"Threats against an American president aren't funny, and protecting the commander in chief is an enormous responsibility," Hertling writes. "No one outside the security team knows everything they knew about the Iranian threat, and we still don't know the whole story. But the episode brought me back to Baghdad because leadership is partly about how we balance risk against mission."

Hertling continues, "Military commanders learn quickly that recklessly exposing yourself serves no purpose. But they learn something else, too: Where a leader chooses to be when conditions are dangerous sends a message."