Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/07/24/military-bases-to-be-renamed.html
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You’d think that Trump would welcome the chance to rename at least two bases “Patton” and “MacArthur” for his two favorite overrated WWII generals that people who watch the History Channel and read Bill O’Reilly books think are good. (He’ll probably be pissed that “Rommel” is already on the “no,” list, though)
Here’s hoping we can get a Ft. [Ira] Hayes out of this.
ETA: Of course SP is right below; I can’t believe that wasn’t the first thing that occurred to me
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I’m confident he will suggest renaming one after himself.
ETA: he probably even has some big, gold lettering in storage already from a casino. Or a winery. Or…
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I’m glad to see this. Most of my life I never thought about the origins of those names, even though I went through some of those bases. But when you come to think of it, it NEVER made sense to name our military bases after men who levied war against this country. They were leaders in a defeated enemy army. You might as well have a Fort Rommel in Georgia - that makes about as much sense.
One of those bases carries the name of my ancestor, and I say yes, change it now. Hell, it never should have been named for him at all.
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Waiting for the tweetstorm in 5…4…3…
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We can definitely agree to disagree that Patton is over rated. He was an excellent military commander and strategist. Shitty human being perhaps. Macarthur…take him or leave him.
Rommel is a difficult bag of beans. He was easily one of the finest military minds and commanders in modern history…but also a POS Nazi. So it’s hard to give him credit for his tactical mind when he also needed to be punched in the face on a second by second basis.
Anywho… yeah, Nostradumbass is going to lose his shit over this. Tough, the Pentagon and military leadership want this. The toddler in chief doesn’t get a say.
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Ft Bonespur?
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Patton was actually a bad ass before WWII. He designed the last cavalry saber for the US military, and designed and wrote texts on their use.
But yeah he would over-reach. Like when he out-paced his petrol supply chasing NAZIs out of France.
But I think that you are wrong. Patton was a killing machine.
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New fort names to include Fort Oliver North, Fort Rumsfeld…
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Patton definitely understood theories of movement and concentration of armored forces much, much better than the average Allied commander and was willing to apply them, but I’d argue the History Channel and middle-age-dad lionization of him as a military genius is not warranted. Tactically superb, strategically above average on certain levels and piss-poor on others.
Eisenhower (one of MacAurthur’s former subordinates) thought it was unfortunate that we didn’t leave him on the Philippines for the Japanese.
I dunno, man…he might crack the top 3 on his own side under a generous appraisal, but he definitely benefited from a very good PR campaign from the Allies to justify getting pushed around in Africa.
Edit: Me grammar good
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So long “Fort Bragg,” hello “Fort Sharpton!”
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Fort Putin, Fort Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud, Fort Duterte…
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Fort Stone, Fort Flynn,…
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“Senate gives the Pentagon three years to make the changes, while the House bill instructs officials to finish the process within one year.” Clearing trump of any real political risk. The change will occur on Biden’s watch presumably. If trump is still infesting the WH he will decree ALL military bases to be named after loser racists or equally for his children.
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I only wish the GOP members of the Senate could have shown as much moral courage back in February.
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Hopefully he suffers a brain vein blowout while trying to find that part of the Constitution that lets him do whatever he wants.
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Fort Epstein, Fort Maxwell…
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Waiting for one to be named after Ollie North.
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I heard that Private Bonespur was a true hero, even though he never made it overseas. His time skiing while suffering from a debilitating disease demonstrated his commitment to showing that anyone with decent healthcare can overcome!
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