Dear Editor:

From a safe distance and protected by his Secret Service, the twice-impeached felon unleashed his mob to attack our nation’s capitol and overturn the peaceful transition of power after a free and fair election. He has now proclaimed himself a “war hero” and is magnanimously sharing that honor with his mass-murderer friend, Bibi “62,000 kills in Gaza” Netanyahu.

What has Trump done to merit an epithet that we usually reserve for George Washington and Abraham Lincoln? Not combat experience. During the Vietnam War, he applied for student deferments and escaped conscription when a family friend diagnosed him with a case of “bone spurs,” from which he quickly recovered.

As Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces, he ordered a drone strike that killed an Iranian general in Iraq; negotiated the premature withdrawal of U.S. forces in Afghanistan; approved a leaked missile attack on Houthis in Yemen, and sent stealth bombers to partially destroy nuclear enrichment sites in Iran.

Let’s not forget that he celebrated his birthday with a military parade and has ordered armed troops into American cities (in blue states, with Black mayors) to impress his rural base and intimidate urban opponents.

Counter intuitively, Trump’s made-for-Fox News bellicosity does not disqualify him from winning this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. He claims to have ended ten (10) wars in the first five months of his current term: Iran / Israel (no ceasefire, no end to the war); Pakistan / India (India denies any third-party role); Rwanda / D. R. Congo (the fighting continues); Malaysia / Thailand (a four- day conflict; threats of increased U.S. tariffs have reduced tensions between the two countries); Armenia / Azerbaijan (no signed and ratified peace treaty); Egypt / Ethiopia (not a war, no formal end to disagreements); Serbia / Kosovo (not a war). Three others, of course, are completely delusional. Oh, and the two deadliest wars raging now, which he boasted he could end with two phone calls? Still raging.

To be generous, we’ll give him one (1) peace deal. Like so many other honors he has bestowed upon himself, ‘war hero’ and ‘peacemaker’ are mere puffery, based only on “alternative facts.”

Bill Hammond

Boothbay