Jay Kuten: When generals guard our peace

Congresswoman Frederica Wilson is owed an apology by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.

Character is what shows up in what people do when no one is watching. In public life, the test of that character is what people do when everyone's watching.

Like many observers of the American political scene, I've tended to put my hopes for stability in a tumultuous White House in the three generals who are closest to the centre of the storm, ie to Trump. As Republican senator Bob Corker puts it, after calling the White House an adult daycare centre, Generals Kelly, Mattis and McMaster act as restraints, keeping President Trump from starting World War III.

I've echoed this endorsement of the generals, particularly National Security Adviser Lieutenant General HR McMaster, despite a healthy skepticism. A dose of history modifies my enthusiasm for military men taking a large part in civilian affairs of state. I've only to look to the late Roman Empire to see how that worked out once before. Despite those reservations, I greeted McMaster's appointment as National Security Adviser with restrained optimism.

McMaster has a history of telling truth to power, as I reported here (March 1, 2017). His book, Dereliction of Duty, written while he was still a major, took to task those general officers who, during Vietnam, failed to correct the over-optimism of their bosses, Lyndon Johnson and McNamara, compounding the losses of human lives.

Now, he and the other two generals have the responsibility for containment and restraint of their new commander-in-chief, a man seemingly committed not only to ignoring the facts (global warming) but actively undermining them, responding to issues of inconvenient truth (protests of discriminatory police brutality) with personal attacks ("sons-of-bitches who don't respect the flag").

In early October, four American soldiers were killed in an ambush in Niger, Staff Sergeants Bryan Black, Jeremiah Johnson Dustin Wright and Sgt La David Johnson. Twelve days elapsed before President Trump made any mention of the men, then only in response to reporters' questions. In his ensuing response, Trump claimed to have called survivors' families and simultaneously made the false claim that his predecessor had failed to make similar acknowledgments.

This set off the first chain of back-and-forths of claim and counterclaim, all serving to obscure the basic question as to what the soldiers were doing there in the first place.
When Trump called Johnson's widow to express his condolences, he said "He knew what he signed up for", referring to Sgt Johnson but never using his name. Rather than console, Trump's words offended and hurt Myeshia Johnson, who allowed her local congresswoman and family friend, Frederica Wilson, to listen to the call. The congresswoman, who, like the Johnson family, is African-American, took Trump to task for insensitive language, and became the target of attack herself.

Chief of Staff General John Kelly, usually above the fray, entered and excoriated the Congresswoman, claiming that she was "an empty barrel" who had grandstanded in 2015, claiming credit for a building supposed to honour two slain FBI agents. A video of the event was found, which completely contradicted Kelly's assertions, showing Rep. Wilson giving credit to others, especially respecting the fallen FBI agents.

General Kelly has aided Trump at the risk of his own reputation. The video that completely contradicted Kelly's memory of the event and of Congresswoman Wilson, offers him a choice, one that may either reassure us of his integrity and ability to serve as a bulwark against chaos or not.

There is nothing unusual in a failure to remember events accurately. Kelly does not have to wear the accusation of "liar", but what he must do is acknowledge his human trait of misremembered reconstruction. An apology is due. Failure or unwillingness to acknowledge error diminishes General Kelly and adds to all our potential danger, just as it did the generals McMaster faulted for Vietnam.

Jay Kuten

■ Jay Kuten is an American-trained forensic psychiatrist who emigrated to New Zealand for the fly fishing. He spent 40 years comforting the afflicted and intends to spend the rest afflicting the comfortable.