Featured Image Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Topics: Iran, Politics, Military, Barron Trump
William Morgan
Topics: Iran, Politics, Military, Barron Trump
With the 'major combat operation' against Iran dragging on into its second week, the looming prospect of US military personnel being deployed on the ground as 'Operation Epic Fury' escalates into the wider region seems to grow.
But after decades of failed wars from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan, which collectively claimed the lives of 68,000 young Americans, and the latest polling showing a majority oppose the war, the appetite for further sacrifices has been muted in online debate.
Seven days after an Israeli strike decapitated the Iranian regime alongside Supreme Leader Ayatolla Khamenei, with at least six American soldiers killed by the wave of retaliatory strikes, some people are even getting behind the satirical #SendBarron hashtag.
This meme is of course referring to the president's most meme-able son, 19-year-old Barron, who is almost half a foot taller than the rest of the family and, despite his boyish looks, the same age as many men who would be putting their lives on the line if Trump begins a ground war in Iran.
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With people joking that the military should 'draft Barron' if soldiers end up fighting on the ground, the MirrorUS unearthed an old argument against allowing children of the president or vice-president to serve in the armed forces.
The second son of President Eisenhower, John, served in another failed war of regime change in Korea, but he said in 2008 that his experience is now 'tinged with regret' because of the situation it put his father in.
Writing in the New York Times, he said: "My unique position in this regard was called to my attention a few days ago in a radio interview. Did I believe that the children of presidents (or vice presidents) should be assigned to combat zones? I was surprised by my own quick reaction:
"'No,' I declared automatically. 'They have no place there.'"
Eisenhower argued that the Commander-in-Chief already had to shoulder the burden of being responsible for the lives of the 1.3 million people serving in the military, without the additional burden of having to worry about their children.
To even serve in Korea, John had to make a bargain no son should have to make with his father. He explained: "[President Eisenhower] would accept the risk of my being killed or wounded, but if the Chinese Communists or North Koreans ever took me prisoner, and threatened blackmail, he could be forced to resign the presidency.
"I agreed to that condition wholeheartedly. I would take my life before being captured."
But while sending Barron to fight in the mountains of ancient Persia would make him the first member of the Trump family to serve in the US military, after his father's 'bone spurs' saw him dodge the Vietnam draft, there could be one major problem.
Barron's height is often stated as being somewhere between 6'7" and 6'9", meaning that the towering young man might actually be too tall to serve - as the height cutoff for the military is 6'8".
That being said, as he is close to the limit, an exception could be made to enlist the president's son, though he would still be too big to operate and F-35 or squeeze into a tank.
So maybe he should just stay at NYU's Washington campus.