Donald Trump and his clownish Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, love wrapping themselves in the flag while pretending they care about the men and women in uniform.
That patriotic act completely evaporates the second real missiles start flying in a reckless war of their own making.
Days before the United States began bombing Iran on February 28, military brass quietly relocated active-duty service members out of Naval Support Activity Bahrain, the Fifth Fleet headquarters located just 120 miles from Iran, while leaving their families behind in harm's way.
Military spouses who survived the March bombardment and chaotic evacuation of more than 1,250 people are now exposing a betrayal that should make anyone with a conscience furious.
“I was terrified. I lay really close to my kids because I was like, at least if we die, we’ll die, and one person won’t be left,” one spouse told MS NOW Pentagon reporter Priya Sridhar.
Another wife whose husband was transferred out before the war started blasted the Pentagon for abandoning dependents.
“Our spouses who weren’t there. They’re sitting there like ‘my family’s in a war zone, and I can’t help them because I’m not there.’ Why weren’t we out? They knew something was going on, and they literally left us there as sitting ducks.”
Hunkered Down Under Missiles as Bahrain Burned
Exclusive reporting by Sridhar reveals how the regime hid the worst destruction of an American Navy base since World War II. Iranian missiles and drones inflicted nearly $400 million in damage to the Bahrain hub, wrecking the command headquarters, warehouses, and satellite terminals.
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao recently admitted that Iran “blew the hell out of Bahrain,” assigning a task force to decide whether the base should even be repaired.
Mothers and children were trapped inside that inferno as bombs struck base buildings.
One wife shut her blinds for days and built an indoor pet bathroom because going outside felt like a death sentence. “My priority was making sure my kids are alive,” she said.
Another spouse hid in a parking garage with her sons for seven hours during a night of heavy strikes. “It was surreal thinking about how scared my children were. It is something I will never forget for the rest of my life,” she explained.
A civilian employee and 20-year Navy veteran was haunted by watching his family endure the bombardment.
“To just sit there in your house and listen to the war over top of you in the sirens and the constant alarms,” he said, adding, “it’s even rougher when the whole time you’re thinking, well, I put my family in the situation. They’re sitting on the couch next to me.”
Ten-Year-Olds on Buses and WhatsApp Evacuation Plans
Official military channels went virtually silent when the Navy finally scrambled to evacuate families in March, forcing spouses to rely on U.S. Embassy social media pages and WhatsApp group chats.
“It was utter chaos. I had no one to talk to, no access to information, nothing,” one spouse said.
Iranian threats shut down Bahrain’s airport, forcing families to flee overland by bus to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Dual-military parents deemed “essential personnel” had to stay behind and find other adults to evacuate their minor children.
“I was on a bus with a lady who had two other kids from two different families on top of her own kids and her pet and someone else’s pet, and I was like ‘God bless you,’” one spouse recalled. “Some of these weren’t even teenagers; these were like 10-year-old kids.”
Abandoning local Bahraini friends and expat workers to a war Washington started left evacuees gutted.
“We should have done more to protect our regional allies. There’s [sic]so many people who don’t have the resources to just leave like we did,” one spouse said, noting, “I have a weird mix of stress, guilt and invalidation about my experience.”
“I was very ashamed to be American and panicking and like ‘we have to get out of here’ because of this huge mess that we [the United States] made,” she added.
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Drained Savings and Silence From Team Trump
Pathological lying is the Trump administration’s only strategy for managing the fallout.
While Trump brags that “we’re doing very well with Iran” and promises rally crowds $5,000 checks if Republicans win, evacuated military families are going broke after fleeing with one suitcase per person.
Many families temporarily moved to Germany for base schooling before the Navy ordered them back to the United States by June, forcing them into hotels and short-term rentals while military evacuation funds expire at the end of November.
“My savings is [sic] gone, my savings is [sic] zero,” said one spouse who spent tens of thousands of dollars on basic necessities. “I feel like I’m living in a nightmare; it’s awful,” another spouse said.
Stonewalling and hollow platitudes are all these traumatized families have received from Trump’s Pentagon.
“No one’s ever spoken a word to us besides, like, ‘we’re proud of your resilience.’ That’s not enough,” one angry spouse said, adding, “I’m pissed at the Navy.”
Another evacuee called out the cover-up directly: “They’re not telling the truth. They’re not telling the full story. They’re not telling how much damage there really was.”
Unsurprisingly, the Military Spouse Commission run by Pete Hegseth’s wife ignored a spouse’s letter pleading for help.
“The government has an obligation to keep me safe, and that includes having a plan for my protection and my safety for myself and my children,” the spouse said.
Career Soldiers Walk Away as Oversight Looms
Betraying military families has trapped Trump and Hegseth in a devastating lose-lose crisis right before the midterms.
Career sailors who served for over 15 or 20 years are now walking away from the military in disgust while their traumatized children jump at the sound of falling books.
“He can’t talk about it still to this day, even to his friends that come over, without literally crying out loud,” one wife said of her husband’s trauma after she was trapped in Bahrain for nearly two weeks.
Another spouse questioned how deployed troops can perform at their best under this neglect: “I don’t know how they can be performing their best when their families are under so much stress.”
A 20-year Navy veteran and civilian employee admitted that “this last year has made me realize that the call of service is starting to fade.”
Accountability is finally coming for the incompetent extremists running the Pentagon.
Democratic Rep. John Garamendi slammed the Bahrain disaster as “chaos, confusion, and completely avoidable,” while Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan vowed that a new House majority will haul Hegseth before investigators in two weeks.
“We’re going to come at them with a fury; he better buckle up and lawyer up,” Ryan warned.
Voters can deliver the first blow at the ballot box by firing the Republican cowards who enabled this disgrace.
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Is there any chance the regime wants to completely gut our military and replace it with mercenaries under their direct control?
So join us and revolt. What’s stopping you?