“He knew what he signed up for” were reportedly president Donald Trump’s words when offering his condolences to Sgt Johnson’s wife in the car, after her husband had died in an ambush in Niger, together with Staff Sergeants Bryan Black, Jeremiah Johnson, Dustin Wright. “But it hurts anyway.”

You may indeed perceive that as insensitive, in particular in a situation when the 24-yr-old pregnant wife and mother of two apparently didn’t know what her husband had been doing in Africa. What matters is if the widow perceives that as insensitive.

President Trump, who had acknowledged the ambush only twelve days after it had happened when having been pressed by a journalist, still denies that he was insensitive; that he even forgot Sgt Johnson’s name when calling his widow. But that’s not an issue. Empathy cannot be learned later in life. One must not condemn him for another proof of insensitivity here.

What is alarming is that US soldiers (who of course know what they have signed up for) are put at risk in Africa now, with a president without a clue what they are doing there. No strategy.

May these four soldiers (who did knew) may rest in peace.

24 October 2017 @ 7:04 am.

Last modified October 24, 2017.